Joe Metzger of Metzgers Printing + Mailing is a 2010 Printing Industry Hall of Fame Inductee

By Erik Cagle

On the Show Circuit

Make no mistake about it, Joe Metzger loves going to Chicago for GRAPH EXPO and PRINT shows. They're not the only graphic arts shows attended by the president of Toledo, OH-based Metzgers Print + Mailing, but they're certainly among his favorites. It's also not surprising to see Metzger talking on printer panels during educational sessions.

Metzger takes to information like a Kardashian sister takes to Rodeo Dr. If he's not doling out information to fellow printers, he's absorbing the latest on printing technologies, ancillary offerings and shifting market trends.

"My brother Tom and I are constantly curious about what's next," Joe Metzger says. "We always wonder what we're going to see at the next GRAPH EXPO. During my senior year of high school in 1982, my dad took my two brothers and me to a TypeX show in Chicago. We drove there for four hours, spent eight hours at the show, then drove back four hours."

Now that's a long day.

"Ever since 1982, there hasn't been a year where we haven't gone to a trade show of some type," he adds. "We took 12 people to the PRINT show last year."

In the Charles   Dickens classic "A   Christmas Carol," there is a scene where Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past observe a young Ebeneezer and his co-worker gushing about their great employer, Mr. Fezziwig, during a holiday party decades earlier.

The Ghost feigns indifference, asking why a meager investment of three or four British pounds for an office party makes Mr. Fezziwig worthy of such high praise. Scrooge quickly rushes to Fezziwig's defense:

"He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil," Scrooge stammers. "Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count them...The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune."

Zeal Is Contagious

Scrooge knew that Fezziwig's festive, animated spirit rubbed off on everyone around him, making work seem like anything but toil (added irony given the cold, steely persona Scrooge would adopt). In reality, positive, excitable chief executives with a zeal for what they do often can boast of an infectious enthusiasm that permeates the entire employee ranks. As the corner office goes, so goes the company.

Look up infectious enthusiasm in the dictionary, and you might find a picture of Joe Metzger. The president of Toledo, OH-based Metzgers Printing + Mailing has a legendary penchant for getting people excited about anything related to the printing industry, particularly new technologies that can benefit his customers and enable the company to add another dimension to its offerings. His employees have bought into Metzger's energy, passion and intelligence; he repays them, in part, with lunch-and-learn sessions in the dedicated Metzgers Education Center.

It seems Metzger is both a student of the industry, as well as a teacher, as evidenced by his speaking engagements on the trade show circuit. His zeal for all things printing has landed him in the 2010 Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame class.

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2010 Hall of Fame: Joe Metzger - Wealth of Knowledge