Luca Negro · Vice President of Sales · Meccanotecnica
At PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas, Morten B. Reitoft meets Luca Negro, VP Sales at Book Automation — the North American operation of Meccanotecnica — to talk about digital transformation, book finishing, ROI, and the differences between doing business in Europe and the United States.
Meccanotecnica has long been known for its sewing technology, particularly among traditional book manufacturers. But the company is rapidly expanding its position in digital book production, adding perfect binding, trimming, casing-in, and increasingly automated workflows to become a much broader solution provider.
For Luca, that development is particularly relevant in North America, where digital book production continues to grow and customers are looking closely at how automation can reduce labor, speed up changeovers, and make shorter runs economically attractive.
But selling equipment in the U.S. also means answering a very direct question: What is the return on investment?
Luca explains that American customers often approach investments differently from their European counterparts. Production numbers, utilization, labor savings, and ROI become central to the discussion very early. That also changes the role of the equipment supplier. Selling a machine isn’t enough — Book Automation increasingly needs to understand the customer’s complete production environment and help calculate where automation can actually create value.
That becomes particularly important as Meccanotecnica expands beyond individual machines toward complete digital book-finishing workflows covering sewn, softcover, and hardcover production.
Morten and Luca also discuss the importance of the North American Book Automation organization. Local sales, service, and workflow expertise help connect Meccanotecnica’s Italian engineering with the realities of American production environments, while additional knowledge within prepress, imposition, and workflow can make those conversations even stronger.
And although technology is obviously important, Luca emphasizes something much more traditional: relationships.
Trade shows such as PRINTING United remain valuable because customers can meet the people behind the equipment, discuss real production challenges, and see applications and machines operating in real environments. Customer stories and videos play an increasingly important role as well, allowing prospective buyers to see not only what a manufacturer promises, but what existing users actually experience.
In the end, automation isn’t simply about buying another machine.
It’s about understanding whether that machine can make the entire book-production business more profitable.
Watch Morten B. Reitoft’s conversation with Luca Negro from Book Automation / Meccanotecnica at PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas.
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Fri September 25th
Bonjour #3· Deborah Hutcheson/AGFA and Ford ...
On the third and final day of PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas, Morten B. Reitoft and Pat McGrew sit down with Ford Bowers, President & CEO of PRINTING United Alliance, and Deborah Hutcheson from Agfa to look back at three busy days — and forward to where the industry is heading. The newly completed Las Vegas Convention Center has given PRINTING United more room to bring the industry's different parts together. Commercial print, wide-format, apparel, promotional products, packaging, software, finishing, and automation increasingly exist side by side rather than as separate industries. And that convergence may be one of the most important takeaways from this year's show. PRINTING United 2026 brought together more than 800 exhibitors across approximately one million square feet, with equipment, software and applications representing almost every part of the print ecosystem. Deborah has experienced that convergence directly at Agfa's booth. Customers aren't simply asking about faster printing equipment anymore. They want flexible automation, fewer touchpoints and technology that can grow as their production requirements change. AI is becoming part of that conversation as well. The PRINTING AI Pavilion returned this year with presentations and discussions about how artificial intelligence can move beyond the hype and become part of real production, workflow, and business processes. Ford admits there was initial concern that printers might be hesitant about AI, but the response at the show suggests the opposite: companies increasingly want to understand how to use it rather than whether they should. But technology is only half of the challenge. PRINTING United Alliance is also investing heavily in education and career development. Student Day brought young people from very different disciplines into the exhibition — not only graphic communications students, but programmers, engineers, chemists and others discovering that print offers far more career opportunities than they may have imagined. Deborah describes conversations with students who were surprised by the variety of technologies and applications they encountered. And Pat overheard perhaps the best reaction possible from young visitors walking into another part of the show: “I didn't know you could do that.” That curiosity matters. As automation, software, robotics and AI become increasingly important, the printing industry needs an entirely new mix of skills — and attracting those people requires showing them just how broad and technologically advanced the industry has become. Now the work begins again. Ford explains that planning for PRINTING United 2027 is already underway, but the Alliance will first evaluate everything from education and Student Day to hall layouts, signage, AI programming and visitor flow to understand what worked and what can be improved. Because just like the companies exhibiting here, the show itself has to keep evolving. Print takes all of us. Watch Morten B. Reitoft and Pat McGrew's conversation with Ford Bowers from PRINTING United Alliance and Deborah Hutcheson from Agfa as they wrap up PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas.