Big Turnout for ACUP Conference

ACUP members chat during the opening reception Sunday night.

It's been a big week for higher-ed in-plants in Albuquerque, N.M. Nearly 100 of them got together for the 51st Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) conference.

From the opening reception on Sunday night until the dinner and awards ceremony on Wednesday evening, managers have been talking non-stop, comparing notes and sharing ideas. It's been reassuring to see so much collaboration going on between fellow in-plant managers.

But the educational sessions have also been pretty active, with attendees chiming in at every opportunity with questions or to share personal anecdotes. Panel discussions on topics like Web-to-print, digital envelope presses and merging print and mail included active audience participation.

Nearly 30 vendors displayed their products on the ACUP vendor floor.

Overall, 92 managers from 73 institutions attended ACUP. Most impressive was the fact that there were 36 first-time attendees, whose numbers included three school district in-plants.

At the business meeting Wednesday morning, ACUP President Lisa Hoover, from Bucknell University, turned over the reigns to new President Richard Tussey, from Eastern Kentucky University. John Wesseling, from the University of Cincinnati stepped into the vice president's role, Bob Donahue, of Franklin University, is the new treasurer, and Kim Stanford, from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, is now secretary.

Managers chat in between sessions. From left: Donna Horbelt of UTHealth; Kim Stanford of the University of Alaska, Anchorage; and Tammy Elliott of the University of the South.

Among the highlights of the conference: Ken Macro, chair of the graphic communication program at Cal Poly, gave an entertaining keynote Tuesday morning called "Graphic Communication is Sexier than Printing"; Cathy Skoglund, of Arizona State University, shared a number of great ways for in-plants to promote their services; and IPG Editor Bob Neubauer managed to blend Albuquerque history and in-plant trends into a single presentation, filled with photos from New Mexico (each of which contained some hidden information).

Watch for IPG's full coverage of the ACUP conference soon.