Rebecca La Mantia Saraceno · Public Officer · The Italian Trade Agency

Italy has a long and important history in printing and converting technology, but technology alone isn't enough to build an international market. You also need connections. At PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas, Pat McGrew meets longtime industry friend Enrico Barboglio at the Italian Trade Agency pavilion to talk about why Italian companies are exhibiting in the United States — and why an international trade show is about considerably more than selling machines. The Italian Trade Agency, together with the Italian printing and converting industry, has brought a group of companies to Las Vegas representing different parts of the production ecosystem. There are machinery manufacturers, software developers, color and process-control specialists, personalization technology and companies providing knowledge and communication to the graphic arts industry. It is only a small representation of the Italian printing industry. Many more Italian manufacturers are exhibiting elsewhere at PRINTING United through American subsidiaries, distributors and partners, illustrating just how significant Italian technology has become across printing, packaging, converting and finishing. For Enrico, however, the most important reason for being in Las Vegas can be summed up in one word: connection. Companies come to PRINTING United to meet customers and potential partners, of course, but they also come to learn. They meet other manufacturers, discover technologies, understand how markets are developing and create relationships that can ultimately lead to entirely new business opportunities. And those relationships work in both directions. Italian companies can introduce American printers and converters to technologies they may not already know, while conversations with the North American market provide Italian manufacturers with new ideas, requirements and perspectives to bring home. PRINTING United is therefore one stop on a much longer international journey. That journey leads toward Print4All in Milan in 2027. Print4All was created to bring together technologies and applications from across printing and converting rather than treating individual print segments as isolated industries. Commercial printing, digital, offset, flexo, gravure, converting, packaging, finishing and increasingly software and automation are all becoming part of a much more connected production ecosystem. That thinking is now being developed further through closer cooperation between ACIMGA and ARGI and the creation of the Printing & Converting Technology Alliance. The objective is to represent technology across the complete printing and converting value chain and create a stronger platform for manufacturers, suppliers, printers, converters, brands and international markets to meet. And perhaps that reflects the industry itself. A printing company rarely buys technology in isolation anymore. Presses need software. Software needs data. Printing requires finishing. Packaging requires converting. Automation requires communication between systems. And increasingly, the companies building those technologies need each other just as much as their customers need them. The machinery may be what visitors initially come to see. But relationships are what ultimately move an industry forward. Watch Pat McGrew's conversation with Enrico Barboglio at the Italian Trade Agency pavilion at PRINTING United 2026 in Las Vegas — and hear why international connections are such an important part of the future of Italian printing and converting technology.