Canadian In-plant Conference Wraps Up in British Columbia
With Consultant Howie Fenton and IPI Editor Bob Neubauer giving back-to-back presentations Monday, the first day of the College & University Print Management Association of Canada (CUPMAC) conference was jam-packed with in-plant best practice advice. More than 30 in-plant managers from across Canada attended the 52nd annual CUPMAC conference, which wrapped up Wednesday in beautiful Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia.
The Sasquatch Dancers welcomed attendees to the region with traditional drum songs.
Since this is the region where the legend of the Sasquatch began, it was fitting that the conference began with a local indigenous group performing traditional drum songs and dances, with performers in full Sasquatch costumes.
Fenton gave several presentations in which he stressed, among other things, the need for managers to be prepared to get called into their boss' office to discuss outsourcing. Have data on your costs always on hand, he advised. He discussed areas where in-plants should benchmark, such as comparing costs with outside printers.
One of the main values in-plants add, he said, is policing the organization's brand to make sure colors and logos are accurate. This can be hard to quantify, he acknowledged, so he suggested having operators keep track of each time they catch a branding error on a customer's file and report these instances to the marketing department.
Neubauer delivered a keynote detailing how in-plants are adding value. He cited data from four different IPI research reports to show which services in-plants are moving into. He focused on new wide-format and specialty applications being produced by in-plants. He also included data from a brand new study on in-house mailing services.
The group traveled to the University of the Fraser Valley in Chilliwack to tour its Print Services operation, managed by Chris Joakim, who also organized the conference. The in-plant relies on two Konica Minolta digital color presses for the bulk of its work and handles wide-format printing with a 42˝ Canon imagePROGRAF 4000 wide-format printer and a new Royal Sovereign laminator.
Conference sponsors Konica Minolta, Canon and Mactac also gave presentations about their technologies, and Donna Horbelt, representing the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP+), talked about her in-plant at UTHealth, in Houston.
Sean Guldin of the University of Victoria talks about his in-plant’s wide-format journey.
CUPMAC member Sean Guldin, Printing Services manager at the University of Victoria, gave a great presentation about his in-plant's journey into wide-format. Five years ago, after realizing the demand for wide-format was strong, his in-plant jumped in by getting a 64˝ Epson SureColor printer, a Graphtec plotter, and a Royal Sovereign laminator. The business took off. After handling all the wide-format work himself for the first year, he generated enough revenue to hire a full-time operator. Within three years, wide-format was generating 20% of the department's revenue.
"It's something that keeps growing, and we're definitely going to keep investing in," Guldin said. In fact, he said, the in-plant later added an Océ ColorWave 500 and then recently upgraded to a new Epson SureColor 540.
CUPMAC 2019 attendees.
On Tuesday night, the CUPMAC group took a boat cruise into the deep waters of Harrison Lake. Though the rain began almost immediately, attendees still enjoyed spectacular views of the distant snow-capped mountains.
The conference wrapped up Wednesday with a roundtable discussion on Web-to-print, with attendees sharing their good and bad experiences with different software solutions. They also spent time visiting 13 vendors at a trade show to learn more about their products. The conference ended with an awards dinner where the CUPMAC awards were presented.
The CUPMAC 2019 Conference is in full swing. @HowieFenton is giving a keynote on strategies from leading in-plants. pic.twitter.com/bEG423qgZE
— In-plant Impressions (@IP_Impressions) June 24, 2019
Judy Peace, president of the College and University Print Management Association of Canada (CUPMAC), welcomes attendees to the conference in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. #CUPMAC pic.twitter.com/iUkzCTjpEs
— In-plant Impressions (@IP_Impressions) June 24, 2019
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
