PRINTING United Expo: How to Find Opportunity Amid Uncertainty

The printing industry doesn’t need a reminder that 2026 has been a grind. Sales are barely moving, costs keep climbing, and a war half a world away is increasing the price of nearly everything. Yet months before opening day, PRINTING United Expo's 1-million-sqft show floor was more than 90% sold. The industry has decided this is not the year to stay home.

The print industry will converge on the North and Central Halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center Sept. 23-25, bringing together more than 800 exhibitors, attendees from across the globe, hundreds of product launches, and every corner of the business — including commercial, in-plant, apparel, wide-format, labels, packaging, mailing, textiles, and industrial printing. A redesigned digital experience should make it easier than ever to plan your three days before you land.

And it’s not just about the equipment — although there will be more than 4 million tons of it on the floor. The AI Pavilion focuses on implementation, the advocacy team will walk you through your actual tariff exposure, and the Alliance’s economists are bringing the numbers on where the industry stands. The goal is to send attendees home with what they need to make the right decisions right now — and into 2027.

Navigating the Most Uncertainty Since COVID-19

For many attendees, the question this year isn’t which press to buy. It’s whether to buy at all.

Andy Paparozzi, chief economist at PRINTING United Alliance, offers a counterintuitive answer. “During periods of extreme uncertainty, the tendency is to sit tight and wait for clarity,” he observes. “The opportunity, however, is to create clarity by moving ahead with capital investment that boosts productivity, automation, and speed.”

He emphasizes that this doesn’t mean rushing into decisions. It means carefully evaluating the options and weighing the cost of waiting. For printers conducting that research, the Expo condenses months of vendor meetings, reference checks, and comparison shopping into just three days.

Paparozzi isn’t downplaying the risk. “The outlook depends largely on the course of war in the Middle East,” he says, and its impact on printers is already evident.

Midyear data from the Alliance’s "State of the Industry (SOI) Survey" shows sales among participants increased 3.9%, while costs surged by 5.6% driven by transportation, energy, overhead, and substrates expenses. Printers raised their prices by only 3.6%. Adjusted for inflation, sales increased a mere 0.3%, and pretax profits were mostly flat for 72.8% of respondents.

The "State of the Industry Report 2026," sponsored by Canon U.S.A., describes this as the industry's most uncertain period since COVID-19. The reason is clear: Oil prices have spiked by nearly 60%, raising diesel and borrowing costs, compounding an already sluggish 2025, when sales rose only 0.4%.

There is a pathway to improvement. If an agreement to end the war is reached, oil prices may return to pre-war levels, restoring business confidence. Still, Paparozzi cautions, “It will take time for the benefits to work through the economy.”

Regardless of how the war unfolds, Paparozzi predicts a widening gap between industry leaders and the rest of the market. Front-running companies are deepening their artificial intelligence (AI) expertise, carefully assessing new opportunities, and reinforcing key profitability drivers such as cost control, planning, execution, and workforce development. They are also seizing the opportunities disruption presents.

Many printers are already following this trend — SOI participants currently invest an average of 5.1% of sales annually in capital equipment, hardware, and software, and nearly 30% plan to boost this investment over the next three years.

Your customers are part of this story. The report highlights an “Amazon effect”: 48.3% of SOI participants say clients are delaying project commitments, while 64.7% report greater demand for quicker turnarounds, and 61.3% notice heightened price sensitivity. Slower commitments, faster delivery expectations, and tighter pricing are creating the pressures many automation and workflow investments aim to address.

Attendees can explore the data firsthand. Paparozzi and Economist Onamica Dhar will present five education sessions during the first two days of the Expo. The lineup begins with “Printing Industry Outlook 2027” Wednesday at 10 am, followed by “Strategies for Building Comparative Advantage” at 2 pm.

On Thursday at 2 pm, they will discuss the “State of the Industry: Wide-Format Printing.” Other sessions will address the apparel decoration industry, sales, and CSR compensation. Topics will include current and future business conditions, printer priorities for improvement, their main concerns, AI usage, and strategies for building a workforce in the AI era.

Copies of the “State of the Industry Report 2026” and the “Midyear Update” will be available at the PRINTING United Alliance booth (Booth N6743).

As the industry prepares to converge in Las Vegas this September, the stage is set for what promises to be the most influential gathering in the printing industry. Don’t miss out. Register here.