ACUP Wraps Up 50th Conference

The 50th annual Association of College and University Printers conference wrapped up yesterday morning in Portsmouth, VA, after three full days of activity. Nearly 100 higher-ed in-plant managers—the most attendees in several years—spent the week trading ideas and talking shop in a hotel on the banks of the Elizabeth River.

Educational sessions were mostly led by members and included a number of roundtable discussions on issues like niche services, garment printing, bindery issues, USPS regulations and other pertinent topics. Other sessions focused on mail, variable data, marketing, workflow and managed print services.

The highlight for some was a session in which a panel of sponsoring vendors was asked some difficult questions by a cheeky magazine editor (name withheld). Among the topics (presubmitted by members) was facilities management, a sore spot for in-plants whose administrators have been approached by vendors selling this service.

ACUP attendees hailed from states as far away as California and Alaska, and included managers from Australia, Scotland and Canada. Many were enthusiastic about the large vendor display area, which featured several digital and wide-format printers, plus other equipment, allowing for personal demonstrations.

On Wednesday night, an elegant awards dinner honored more than 25 winners of the ACUP Awards. Also, retired Indiana University Manager Joe Goss, a longtime ACUP attendee, was inducted into the ACUP Hall of Fame.

To see dozens of photos from the conference, visit www.facebook.com/inplant.

Watch a video of ACUP 2015