With the early announcement of this year's top technology winners, Graph Expo 2012 attendees will be able for the first time to plan their MUST SEE ‘EMS booth visits in advance of the show. They also will be able to take advantage of a new “Must See ‘Ems” pre-show webinar for more in-depth discussions of the winning technologies and the reasons they were chosen.

Entries in the MUST SEE ‘EMS competition were submitted by the graphic communications industry's top vendors and placed for judging in 11 individual categories. Winners were selected by a panel of industry experts, journalists and consultants who based their choices on the impact they believe these technologies will have on the industry. Winners were picked in each category with the first-time "Best of Category" selections to be announced at the conclusion of the Executive Outlook Conference on October 6, 2012, prior to the opening of Graph Expo.

New for this year as well is the inaugural "Legacy Award," which was created to recognize one past MUST SEE 'EMS winner that has had a lasting influence on the graphic communications industry. This award will also be announced at the pre-show Executive Outlook Conference.

On September 12, 2012, a MUST SEE 'EMS webinar will be hosted by program coordinator Hal Hinderliter, a long-time and highly respected industry consultant and educator. He will review each technology in depth and examine the reasons behind each selection. Webinar attendees can use this information to prioritize their show planning schedules to make the best use of their time at the show and to coordinate their booth visits. Webinar registration information will be available online at: www.graphexpo.com.

Graph Expo attendees can also factor the webinar information into their personalized Graph Expo Show Planner. The planner allows attendees to build a roster of exhibitors to visit, organize their time in Chicago with the My Events Calendar, schedule meetings, and print out their personalized agenda planner to take to the show.

The 2012 MUST SEE 'EMS award winners are listed alphabetically within each category, along with booth numbers. They are:

* SALES AND ORDER ENTRY: EFI DSFdesign Studio for EFI Digital StoreFront (Booth 2000); EFI M500 Self-Service Copy and Print Station (Booth 2000); and XMPie uStore Facebook Connect (Booth 1200).

  * PREPRESS AND PREMEDIA: DALIM SOFTWARE - ES 3 (Booth 229); EFI Fiery SeeQuence JobMaster (Booth 2000); Esko Studio 12 (Booth 427); Ricoh Clickable Paper (Booth 2600).

* PRESSROOM - ANALOG PRESSES: Heidelberg USA Prinect Image Control Next Generation (Booth 1214).

* PRESSROOM - DIGITAL PRESSES: Eastman Kodak NexPress Gold Dry Ink (Booth 1221); Hewlett-Packard HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press (Booth 1227); Hewlett-Packard HP Indigo WS6600 Digital Press (Booth 1227).

* PRESSROOM - WIDE-FORMAT: Epson America SureColor S50670 (Booth 636); Hewlett-Packard HP Designjet L26500 Printer (Booth 1227); Xante Corporation Excelagraphix 4200 (Booth 2449).

* POSTPRESS FINISHING - DIGITAL AND SMALL-FORMAT: MGI - JETvarnish 3D (Booth 3623); Xerox IntegratedPLUS Finishing Solution for Booklets (Booth 1200).

* POSTPRESS FINISHING - WIDE-FORMAT: EFI Layout Option for Fiery Wide-Format Solution (Booth 2000); Esko Kongsberg XN (Booth 427).

* IMPRINTING, MAILING, SHIPPING AND FULFILLMENT: Avanti Computer Systems Advanced Fulfillment V12.4 (Booth 864); Bowe Systec North America Fusion Cross (Booth 3627); Pitney Bowes Mailstream Wrapper Inline Envelope Converting Module (Booth 1238).

* MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: Eastman Kodak INSITE Prepress Portal Software Version 6.5 (Booth 1221); EFI PrintFlow Dynamic Scheduling - Employee & Tool Constraints (Booth 2000); XMPie Circle (Booth 1200).

* FUTURE PRINT - TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATIONS: Eastman Kodak FLEXCEL Direct System (Booth 1221); PadPublisher Company PadPublisher and PadCloud (Booth 4836); Pageflex Dynamic Media (Booth 867).

Graph Expo

(703) 264-7200; www.graphexpo.com