Editor's Note Out And About

Don't get me wrong: I love getting out of the office, talking with in-plant managers and seeing the latest equipment at trade shows. But all that time away sure makes it tough to catch up once I return.

In recent weeks I've been to three different events and met with more than 100 in-plant managers. We had some great discussions, and I got a number of excellent story ideas.

It all started with the annual National State Publishing Association conference. I drove up to Connecticut to spend four days with the directors of some of the largest state government in-plants. (I was secretly pleased the conference took place in a cell phone dead zone in the rural northwest corner of the state, letting attendees concentrate more fully on the issues being discussed.) Some of the most interesting sessions dealt with communicating color, variable data and "supersizing" your services.

I also gave a presentation to the group on the current status of the in-plant industry based on the latest IPG research.

From there I traveled to Chicago (definitely not a cell phone dead zone) for Graph Expo, which was rather well attended, considering the current economy. In addition to attending press conferences and visiting exhibits, I moderated the second annual IPG roundtable for the Top 70 in-plants. There, some of the country's largest operations (including the Government Printing Office, Allstate and the University of California) discussed their purchasing plans (several had their eyes the new Xerox iGen3), new services they are offering and how they are able to justify their operations to management.

After three days at Graph Expo, I flew to Bloomington, Ind., where Indiana University was hosting the Big Ten Printing & Copyright Conference. The excellent program included interactive discussions about online job submission systems, on-demand printing opportunities and the copyright permission process.

In addition, I moderated a panel discussion on "Doing More With Less," which offered first-hand accounts on how managers were dealing with budget cutbacks. Joe Goss also took us on a tour of IU Printing Services, where a new two-color Komori Sprint GS held reign.

After that, I returned to the office for just a few days, during which I had to quickly finish up our November issue before flying off again, this time to Oklahoma City. There I attended the International Publishing Management Association's second annual regional conference and visited four in-plants. I also gave a presentation on the state of the in-plant market, featuring data IPG collected from hundreds of in-plants.

And now...well, I suppose I'll stay put for a while. That will give me time to start writing in more detail about the things I learned on these trips.

So stay tuned.