中文Canon’s production inkjet user community, thINK, held its 12th annual thINK Ahead conference at The Boca Raton Resort in Florida from July 13–15, 2026, and the numbers suggest the production inkjet segment has never been healthier. The event drew a record crowd of more than 400 users and 45 sponsors, making it the best-attended thINK Ahead conference to date. For an organization that bills itself as the largest user group in production inkjet printing, the turnout is more than a milestone — it is a signal that customers are eager to compare notes, evaluate new equipment, and refine their strategies in a rapidly evolving market.
What thINK Represents
thINK is a self-governed community of more than 1,600 active Canon production inkjet equipment owners, solution partners, and industry experts. While the annual conference receives the most attention, the group’s real value lies in year-round collaboration through online forums, webinars, best-practice toolkits, and industry research. Members use these channels to stay aligned on technology upgrades, workflow optimization, emerging applications, and the broader state of the inkjet market.
For owners of Canon production inkjet presses, the community offers something vendors alone cannot provide: peer-to-peer problem solving. Equipment decisions in high-volume print environments are complex, and the ability to ask another operator how a specific press performs on a specific substrate can shorten implementation timelines and reduce costly mistakes. The conference amplifies that exchange by bringing members together in one location.
A Banner Year for Product Introductions
One of the traditional highlights of thINK Ahead is the Canon Innovation Center, where attendees can see what is new and what is coming to the Canon Production Print portfolio. This year, Canon used the showcase to introduce a wave of new products and updates across its inkjet lineup. The company emphasized not just hardware speed and image quality, but also workflow integration, automation, and the software layer that ties production inkjet devices into broader business systems.
Canon executives used the event to reinforce a message of organizational unity. In his keynote, Isao “Sammy” Kobayashi, President and CEO of Canon U.S.A., described Canon’s move to “unify our structures to reinforce the power of one.” He acknowledged that operating in silos had sometimes created internal friction, but argued that bringing teams, resources, and expertise under one organization would reinforce rather than disrupt Canon’s commitment to the production printing trade.
Why User Groups Still Matter
In an era of on-demand webinars and AI-powered support chatbots, the persistence of large in-person user groups might seem surprising. But production inkjet is a capital-intensive business where mistakes are expensive and best practices are still being established. A user group like thINK creates a protected space where competitors can share operational knowledge without sharing customers. It also gives Canon direct feedback on what is working, what is missing, and where the next generation of equipment should be focused.
The record attendance at thINK Ahead 2026 suggests that production inkjet customers are not retreating from live events. On the contrary, they appear to be investing more time in understanding the technology stack that will define their competitiveness over the next five years. For Canon, the challenge now is to convert that enthusiasm into sustained product momentum and measurable customer outcomes.
Source: whattheythink.com — “thINK Ahead 2026: Lots of People, Sponsors and New Products” by David Zwang
