Expo Bound: ‘A Rare Opportunity’ to See Everything at Once

By Bob Neubauer

Sylvia Palmer

The PRINTING United Expo — September 10-12 in Las Vegas — is just around the corner, and attendees are eagerly preparing for days filled with learning, networking, and inspiration. We talked with Sylvia Palmer, supervisor of Reprographics and Records at Jurupa Unified School District, to learn what’s driving her to attend the Expo.

What made you want to attend this year's Expo?

The Expo is a rare opportunity to not only see, but also handle just about every piece of printing equipment you can imagine. Taking up the entire Las Vegas convention center, there will be everything from huge printing machines, mailing equipment, software providers, all the way to tabletop finishing equipment. It’s a one-stop-shop with a mass variety of vendors all willing to share how great their product is.

Another extremely valuable aspect is the ability to meet with and collaborate with other in-plant managers. So many great ideas come out of those conversations. Because we are a constantly evolving industry, it’s important to stay in tune with what current trends are, what the latest technology is and what machines are being introduced.

What specific ideas did you bring home from last year’s Expo that helped your in-plant?

I’ve attended Printing United Expo in the past and brought back a wealth of information about the sustainability of the industry, different ways to market our in-plants, and hands-on experience on several different finishing and binding machines. There is also a lot to learn from the keynote speakers; you learn both from their successes and their pitfalls.

What products or services are you most looking forward to seeing this year?

I am most interested in updates in job flow software including AI as well as what the future of inkjet looks like – and finishing equipment.

Why is attending the Expo better than going to a vendor’s demo center to see equipment?

The Expo allows printers to have conversations with all the print vendors in one location and see their products working. I’ve even reached out to vendors and asked to bring some of my own jobs to see what the run time is and how the finished product looks.

Is networking with industry peers an important reason for attending the Expo? If so, why?

Absolutely! The in-plant managers are a unique group, we share ideas of what’s working for us and how. We’re not in competition with one another, so gate keeping doesn’t exist in our environment.

How do you hope attending will impact your business/career moving forward?

In addition to looking at products that will streamline our print process, I will spend some time looking at products we don’t currently have in our in-plant. I want to know what is around the corner for the future of print. I will also leave the show with a new group of in-plant manager counterparts to reach out to in the future.

Also, register here to attend the free In-plant Forum hosted by In-plant Impressions, Wednesday Sept. 10. 12:00 - 1:30 p.m.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

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.