September 11 News Ripples Through Show

When news reports and CNN images surged through the exhibit halls early on the sixth day of the Print 01 exposition, vendors and visitors alike stood transfixed at the television monitors at kiosks in McCormick Place. Within a few hours, with the "ground hold" rule in effect at airports throughout the country, the "local" or "out-of-towner" designation became quite important to everyone in the exhibit facility, with those in the latter category having an uneasy feeling of being stranded in Chicago.

As people phoned to check on relatives and friends and news bulletins continued, exhibiting companies hastily convened managers' meetings to assess the situation, size up the possible effects on employees and their families, and consider alternative ways to get people home.

Some exhibitors drew up lists of staff members by location, then organized car and van pools; meanwhile, other managers arranged for booth coverage by local personnel.

Quite a few exhibitors shut down their equipment for the day on September 11, and several closed their booths altogether, with plans to reopen the next day. The biggest of these certainly was Xerox Corporation, whose president and chief executive, Anne M. Mulcahy, decreed that, because of the company's farflung locations, which included offices in the World Trade Center, it was prudent to shut down the show's second-largest exhibit for the rest of the day. On Wednesday, Xerox reopened with a slightly reduced schedule for equipment demonstrations.

By Tuesday afternoon, the cavernous halls had become eerily quiet. A few machines could be heard running, but mostly there was talk about the tragic incidents and the sounds of newscasters on the monitors.

Show management issued a bulletin to exhibitors that Print 01 would stay open as scheduled, subject of course to a closure edict by hall management or the City of Chicago. Granted, managers reasoned, some out-of-town visitors might not be able to attend, but attendees within driving distance probably would go through with their plans to visit the show.

As a matter of fact, most of the educational seminars on Wednesday had only a nominal drop-off in attendance, although a few had to be canceled because the speaker was not present. A few exhibitors closed down their booths.

As in many other industries, the weeks following Print 01 have seen an outpouring among printers, industry vendors, and associations involving heartfelt tributes, statements of condolence, and pledges for funds to benefit firemen, policemen, and survivors in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. A few examples from many: Fujifilm and the Xerox Foundation each donated $1 million to help victims and lost rescue workers' families, Quad/Graphics contributed $100,000 to a September 11 fund and pledged to match employees' donations, and Sun Chemical redirected funds from a canceled Print 01 event to relief purposes.

In addition, countless printers, such as Beaver-Prints, Inc., Bellwood, Pa., Continental Corporate Engravers of Long Island City, N.Y., CRW Graphics of Pennsauken, N.J., and the Salt Lake City, Utah-based Printer's Success Alliance network of about 40 printers are donating printing or a percentage of the proceeds from the production of flag posters, bumper stickers, decals, and/or "Pride in America"-type business products to charitable causes.

Because we're based in New York City and located about 20 blocks north of the World Trade Center site, we received any number of "Are you OK?" messages from around the nation and from Asia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Our entire staff thanks all for their concern.

Unfortunately, two senior executives of GAM's parent company, Cahners Business Information, Jeffrey P. Mladenik and Andrew Curry Green, perished in the attack; see the memorial message on page 25.