June 2000, Vol. 11, No. 6
Fun House
NEXPO 2000 poised to be a veritable playland in the city by the Bay
Back when columnist Herb Caen ruled the prints, San Franciscans got their jollies by going to Playland at the Beach. Actually, there was a jolly or three that was accomplished at places other than Playland,
but go with me here.
The key aspect of Playland -- if you overlook Pronto Pups and It's-Its (corn dogs and an ice cream and oatmeal cookie confection) -- was the Fun House. Laughing Sal, a hideous, automatronic cackling doll, presided over the entire establishment.
But progress marches on, and in 1972 the owners of the amusement park shut it down and turned over the land to developers. Today, it's impossible to tell that the relatively modern condominiums out at Ocean Beach are, in fact, built on the ruins of Playland.
But hark! As luck would have it, the grand poohbahs of the Newspaper Association of America have determined that San Francisco is to be the site of not just its annual newspaper operations trade show and conference, but four other conferences as well.
Newspapers 2000, in my hometown June 14-21, promises to relive the Fun House of old -- you will be able to see everything from retired Gen. Colin Powell to a demonstration of something called AdLizard, all within the confines of a three-block radius, which is within easy walking distance of such treasured tourist traps as Chinatown and Union Square.
And while the other attractions of Newspapers 2000 -- the marketing and co-op, the classified and the research meetings, not to mention Connections, the new media shindig -- might be worthy of your attention, we assume that you're coming to San Francisco (or wishing you were coming to San Francisco) for NEXPO.
(It is based on this assumption that we have kept away from evaluating exhibits in the other arenas -- so, no mention in the august journal of, for random example, Open Market, is indicative only of the fact that the company chose to exhibit at a show other than NEXPO.)
NEXPO 2000 will be my 19th U.S. newspaper industry trade show (drat that bug that felled me in 1986) and it promises to be one of the best (I'm under contract with NAA, so I have to say that). No, really: with more than 170 exhibitors in the pre-press and new media arenas, there will be plenty to choose from.
To assist you in that choice process, we have reviewed material from those 170 booths and chosen but a mere 50 to highlight. These suppliers -- running the gamut from the aforementioned AdLizard to Xitron -- represent some of the latest and most interesting technology innovations to be introduced in many years.
And for those companies that aren't bringing technology introductions, they seem to be bringing something better: products that, while announced in the past, seem to work today.
Nonetheless, even 50 companies are a few too many to visit -- especially if your fiscally conservative higher-ups have decided that you can make due with just 24 hours in our city by the Bay.
Therefore, additionally we have prepared a list of but a mere seven exhibits that you must visit if you have but one day at the show (an hour a booth and we'll let you take an hour for lunch -- I recommend John's Grill on Ellis, though there is a case to be made for either Lulu on Folsom or Max's Diner on Third Street, but if you want the real newspaper deal, you have to go to the M&M at Fifth & Howard; hell, the city is filled with good restaurants).
As always in our NEXPO preview -- this is, actually, the 10th -- we have provided a colorful map of the show floor (executed by Joe Shoulak), indicating not only our recommendations, but the logos of prominent suppliers. This will give you a sense of where you are on the show floor.
We will come back at you next month with our impressions of what we saw at the show, as well as what we heard.
It should be a fun house.
-- David M. Cole
Index
Top seven exhibits to visit:
1. AdLizard: Ultimate Internet/pre-press move.
5. Advanced Technical Solutions Inc.: A raft of new products in a variety of areas.
11. Camera Bits Inc.: Good add-on tools for digital cameras, scanners.
12. CCI Europe Inc.: The 800-pound gorilla of the next century -- you've got to go just to see the gold standard.
20. Geac Publishing Systems: Company totally re-invented ... it ain't just business software no more.
22. Harris Publishing Systems Corp.: JazBox looks to be a leading editorial front-end for the mid-size newspaper market.
23. IBM and NewsEngin Inc.: IBM promises surprises while NewsEngin continues to extend Lotus Notes' use in newspapers.
Illustration: Joe Shoulak
From THE COLE PAPERS, June 2000, Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved.