Awards, Real and Imagined
When the votes were tallied, the official NEXPO'98 booth awards went to the following companies:
NEXPO'98 Award for Best Depiction of the Theme, "Discover a World of Solutions": TKS (U.S.A.) Inc., Richardson, Texas.
NAA Arrangements Committee Award for Best Demonstration of Working Technology: GMA/Muller Martini, Bethlehem, Pa.
NAA Board of Directors Award for Most Attractive and Creative Exhibit: Total Mailroom Support Inc., Middleburg Heights, Ohio.
But here are other booth awards that could have-and probably should have-been presented:
Good Humor Award: Tie between Dynaric Inc. of Teaneck, N.J., and TVData Technologies of Glens Falls, N.Y., both of which offered ice cream in their booths.
Silver Scissors and Singers Award: Gammerler Corp. of Hanover Park, Ill., for offering free haircuts and a barbershop quartet while promoting its RS111 rotary trimmer.
Best Use of a Local Newspaper: Tie between Goss Graphic Systems Inc. in Westmont, Ill., and Heidelberg Finishing of Dayton, Ohio, both offering tours of The Orlando Sentinel to show off their equipment in action.
Good Timing Award: WIFAG Press Co. of Marietta, Ga., which, for the second time in three years, announced a major shaftless-press sale on the opening day of NEXPO. This year's customer was The Dallas Morning News.
Global Awareness Award: Atex Media Solutions of Bedford, Mass., for offering its pre-press system demos in both English and Spanish.
Attendee Awareness Award: PrePress Solutions Inc. of Billerica, Mass., for its "Pre-Press Coffee Breaks."
Cover Your Bets Awards: AdQuest Classifieds, The Associated Press, Edgil Associates, Editor & Publisher Co., FutureTense, IBM, InfiNet, Lexis-Nexis, MediaStream, Thomson Interactive Media, Tribune Media Services and Zip2 Corp. for showing their wares at both Connections and NEXPO.
Best Heavy-Metal Moments: TKS again, this time for having a working shaftless press in its booth.
Best Use of Computer Technology in a Heavy-Metal Booth: MAN Roland Inc. of Westmont, Ill., for its virtual-reality demonstration that allowed participants to "fly" through its new shaftless press.
Best Exploitation of a Beloved Sitcom: Autologic Information International Inc. of Thousand Oaks, Calif., for its "Seinfeld" skit in which a Kramer look-alike went crazy over AII equipment.
Spaciest Product Award: Stauffer Media Systems of Joplin, Mo., for Voyager, an Internet-compatible archiving system demoed by a woman in a spacesuit.
Best Tie-in With a Current Event: Ryder Integrated Logistics of Miami. On the same weekend as the U.S. Open golf tournament, Ryder made a putting green available to NEXPO attendees.
Most Patriotic New Product: Studio Now of New York City, for e-the-people, an interactive town-hall service for newspapers publishing on the Internet (www.e-thepeople.com).
Scariest New Brand: ECRM Inc. of Tewksbury, Mass. In prior years, this imaging company advertised its Knockout product line by showing a painful close-up of a boxer getting his nose punched in. This year, a menacing Mako shark hovered over its booth, promoting the company's new Mako imagesetters. What next, the Freddie Krueger RIP?
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A few fathers kept pace with their kids in this year's Presstime/Flint Ink Fun Run, held on Father's Day. Above, left to right: Bob Koenig of The Wenatchee (Wash.) World and daughter Sarah; Paul SoRelle of the Houston Chronicle and daughter Danielle of CKP Newspaper Systems; and Steve Schroeder of The Wenatchee (Wash.) World and son Paul, 5, who went the 2-mile distance. Winners were Monica Gallardo of Markzware Software, third; Cindy Reno, News & Record in Greensboro (N.C.), second; Melanie Bergevin, The Sacramento Bee, first; Flint; Bernie Blacknall, Houston Chronicle, first; Michael Tartar, Newspapers & Technology, second; and Stephen Toal, Cybergraphic Inc., third. |
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