PRINTING United Expo '24

Last week, on behalf of AYM High Consultants, I attended the massive PRINTING United Expo ’24 in Las Vegas. The show took over two full halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with over 800 exhibitors from all over the world and roughly 30,000 attendees!

I spent three days at the convention center, fueled by my favorite Vegas bagels and schmear from adjacent Siegel’s Bagelmania, walking roughly 11 miles each day to try to cover as much of the show as I could and visit with as many exhibitors and attendees as I could.

I went for a four main reasons:

    1)    I love Vegas and will make any excuse to go

    2)    I wanted to see what other consultants there were doing, if they had booths or not, and have some chats with others in similar spaces to learn from them

    3)      To meet with exhibitors and source special requested information, products, equipment, and services for AYM High clients—whom we now call “Soarers”

    4)      To meet up with industry colleagues from the Association of Mail & Business Centers and other organizations and contacts I’ve made over the years to network and continue positive relationship building

I didn’t encounter too many other consultants there though. Are there not many doing what we do in the printing world? Up until now, with AYM High Consultants we’ve really been specializing in the mailbox, print, packing, and retail shipping industry and I thought surely there would be others specifically specializing in print. But I didn’t find too many—if any! This tells me there’s a great opportunity there, so I’m excited to look more into it to see how AYM High can help small and medium print shops get started, get going, and keep growing.

By the end of the three days, I had compiled three full bags of swag, catalogs, business cards, brochures, and giveaways, including a giant pile of pens to bring to my BFAM (brother from another mother) Fahim, who is a tradeshow pen aficionado. I left myself over 100 voice memos during my visits so I could later sit down and sort through all of the information I gained, and ended up compiling a 25-page document full of ideas, photos, contacts, and suggestions that we’ve now shared exclusively with our Soarers.

I also had a great time meeting with organizers of the PRINTING United Expo. Will AYM High be presenting there next year when the show happens in Orlando? There’s a good chance! And an even better chance we’ll be even more involved in 2026 when the show comes back to Vegas. Stay tuned!

Check out AYM High Consultants’ socials @aymhighconsultants or my personal socials @askunclemarty for photos and videos from the experience.

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Marty Johnson is the Communication and Vision Coach at AYM High Consultants, a columnist, and an editor, producing the mail and business center industry's leading magazine, MBC Today. In 2023, he sold his popular and growing brand, Uncle Marty’s Shipping Office, and retired from shopkeeper life to focus on writing and coaching. Subscribe to his Ask Uncle Marty™ newsletter and read more at askunclemarty.com; follow him on socials @askunclemarty. #AskUncleMarty