The 2025 PRINTING United Expo brought together print, decoration and promotional products professionals from far and wide at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL, from Oct. 22 to 24.

PRINTING United Alliance reported that it was their biggest show to date. Here were some of the highlights:

• More than 30,000 registered attendees
• 104 countries represented
• 838 exhibitors
• 1 million square feet of exhibition space

The PRINTING United Expo welcomed nearly 850 exhibitors and thousands of attendees to Orlando last week. Photo: PRINTING United Alliance

In addition to the show’s physical footprint and draw, the Alliance highlighted events that celebrated membership and engagement like the Women in Print Alliance luncheon, which included more than 300 attendees, and more than 60 students from local schools and universities participating in the annual Student Day, which was held in partnership with the Print and Graphics Scholarship Fund.

“The expo embodied the convergence of every market under one roof – and the innovation our industry thrives on,” said Chris Curran, group president for media and events at PRINTING United Alliance. “From AI to automation and sustainability, every corner of the show floor was power-packed with solutions driving print forward. We’re already looking ahead to 2026, where the show floor is already 65% sold out to date.”

The show floor in Orlando was full of takeaways for those in the print world and promo alike – as well as the increasingly numerous people working in some combination of the two.

Finding Money-Making Opportunities in Print

During the first day of the expo, Joanne Gore of Joanne Gore Communications led a presentation about how printers can sell more by demonstrating that their products are an integral part of their customers’ branded campaigns and initiatives.

More than that, she stressed how business owners need to consistently put their own brand in front of prospects and stand out in a crowded market and short attention spans.

“You will get sick of your message and your tag line and your call to action,” she said. “It doesn’t matter, because they have not heard it, and that’s what matters.”

She also focused on how business owners could weigh their opportunity costs and pursue worthwhile prospects rather than every potential deal.

Sustainability in Action

Since apparel is such a major part of the PRINTING United Expo and the Alliance’s membership, sustainability and sustainable apparel were a major focus of the show.

Cassie Green, content director for Alliance publication Apparelist, led a panel with Eric Henry, CEO of TS Designs; Milissa Gibson, director of sales for Lane Seven Apparel (asi/66246); and PRINTING United Alliance EHS Affairs Coordinator Sara Osorio, where they laid out actionable steps for business owners to take right now toward a more sustainable future.

The conversation ranged from changes that you can make in your own facility, like managing energy costs through simple measures, to larger-scale topics like pushes for more sustainable materials throughout the industry and changing legislation affecting the apparel and printing world at large.

“Looking at sustainability in the short term is only going to be a detriment,” Osorio said. “This is going to be a permanent change of mindset. A lot of times it’s seen as expensive. Look at it as slow and steady renovations.”

The AI Age

While environmentalism was one of the key themes of the show, AI was the one topic that might have eclipsed it.

AI was everywhere, from the art and design process to logistics and sales generation – nearly every facet of the businesses on the show floor could be impacted by AI in some way.

The point that PRINTING United Alliance Senior Vice President of Member Services Joe Marin made was that AI can be a wonderful tool, but it is not a magic bullet.

Marin walked through how businesses could use AI to save time on tasks like writing emails or crafting presentations, but warned that it still required a guiding hand to check for “hallucinations” – when the AI platform creates an answer or text that is right in the sense that it looks correct, but might not be factually correct or tone-appropriate.

In the end, Marin likened AI to an enthusiastic intern who never stops working. They’re a wonderful asset to the team, but sometimes you need to check their work when they’re overcaffeinated and sleep-deprived.

Managing Growth the Right Way

Colin Sinclair McDermott is known as the Online Print Coach thanks to his more than two decades in the industry providing printers with tips for growing their businesses.

In his presentation at the expo, McDermott provided attendees with 10 common mistakes that print businesses make when trying to achieve growth.

Rather than falling into common pitfalls like failing to set achievable and measurable goals, approaching marketing with one-size-fits-all solutions, using email ineffectively and more, McDermott outlines how printers can adapt to the modern sales landscape and grow their print businesses to new and long-lasting heights.

Firsthand Tales of Success

Customers want a one-stop shop. And the reality is that print buyers are often buying promo, too. That realization has caused print pros to expand their business offerings to promotional products to varying degrees of scale and find even more sticky customers and repeat orders thanks to reliable sales.

In a panel discussion moderated by Brendan Menapace, content director for ASI’s Print & Promo Marketing brand, Linda Fox, owner of SpeedPro Imaging Nashville South (asi/553949); Kent Ross, owner and founder of RP&G Printing; and Gordon Klepec, regional vice president at Counselor Top 40 distributor American Solutions for Business (asi/120075), told their stories about starting in print and adding promotional products. The discussion included how they formed relationships with promotional products vendors, what sorts of customer verticals want certain products, and case studies that stood out as especially lucrative or fundamental to their growth.

The Present & Future of Direct-to-Film Printing

Direct-to-film decorating has emerged alongside the prevalence of other printing tech innovation like direct-to-garment and plays a role in the exploding trend of print-on-demand. Printers or decorators can take preprinted designs and apply them to items as needed to meet demand, rather than risking dead stock or investing in large and expensive equipment for other techniques like screen printing or embroidery.

The relatively low barrier to entry into the decoration space has inspired some distributors to bring decoration in-house, or for decorators to consider this technique.

Two experts in the direct-to-film and apparel decoration space – American Print and Supply CEO and founder Rob Super and Deana Iribe, training and marketing content manager for Printer Biz and owner of The Print Bakery – shared their opinions on where DTF is right for a printer or decorator, when investment in equipment is the right strategy, limitations in the technology and where it’s going.

The Modern Commercial Printing Industry

The constant pressure to keep up with a changing industry was another common theme of discussions and panels. Print professionals have had to deal with many of the same variables that others have, such as tariffs or shrinking labor forces, as well as the continued adoption of digital in place of print for things like forms.

All’s not lost, but, to stay competitive, printers need to ditch bad habits and antiquated methods and modernize their organizations, according to Alliance Insights’ Nathan Safran and Lisa Cross.

Safran and Cross pointed to various “punts” – bad habits or practices that should be abandoned – and the coinciding pivots to more lucrative and modern choices.

Safran and Cross detailed how they can search for more valuable prospects and add new revenue streams like promotional products or other print products to make up for any losses from diminishing demand in other areas.

How Printers Can Diversify With Signage

Signage is one of the areas in printing where print sellers and printers can find reliable business.

Wendy Graves, partner at Make It Happen Signage Academy, provided easily digested insights into how printers and promotional products distributors could use signage to complement their existing sales.

“This could be an opportunity to say yes to clients,” she said. “They’re already using you for lots of other products. Why not capture that relationship and then turn them into signage relationships?”

She pointed to yard signs as opportunities for repeat orders without needing to invest in expensive equipment or learn too much about the ins and outs of modern print techniques.

“You have to be moving and shaking all the time in our industry,” she said.

Promo Curiosity

ASI was on hand at the PRINTING United Expo as a bridge between the print industry and the promotional products industry.

Theresa Hegel, the executive editor for special projects and sustainability at ASI, presented a session at the expo titled “Busting 7 Top Myths Printers Have About Promo.”

For printers who might want to diversify their business into print, Hegel’s presentation assuaged some common fears they might have and filled in blank spaces in their knowledge.

This included explaining the high ROI opportunity in promo, environmentally friendly choices, ability for high margins in sales and more.

Apparel Trends

Apparel can be the first traditional promo item that printers bring into their business. It makes sense, as it’s still ink on a flat material.

Whether they’re new to apparel or an old pro, attendees at PRINTING United Expo could wander the show floor and get a sense for what suppliers were selling and what end-users ultimately want to wear.

Hegel explored trends such as oversized comfortwear like hoodies, muted color palettes for a high-end retail feel and more.

Effects & Embellishments

Using apparel pieces as a moving billboard, printers and decorators can use the ink to make the garment pop and the branded aesthetic even more effective.

Decorating industry veteran Charlie Taublieb explained how screen printing can achieve looks that other decoration methods like DTF aren’t able to do.

“This is my opportunity to tell DTF to stuff it,” he joked.

His presentation included things like high-density inks to layer for added texture, foils for flashy prints and more.

Display Trends

At its core, the PRINTING United Expo is a trade show where attendees can look at booth displays for inspiration on their own display sales. It just so happens that many of the occupants of the booths made the displays themselves.

Using signage and print products on surfaces like tables and floors, as done here by Drytac at the PRINTING United Expo in Orlando, creates additional brand visibility and a more immersive display.

This year, exhibitors leveraged features like backlit components to attract eyes, specialized material for customers in specific verticals and to fit specific applications, and using the full space to create an immersive experience rather than just relying on backdrops or two-dimensional signs.