Seeking Ideas to Expand His In-plant's Product Range

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 Abbas Badani, senior director of Integrated Graphics Services at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to learn what’s driving him to attend the Expo.

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

Print United is a great opportunity to connect with vendor partners for all operational aspects, whether it is technology, equipment, software, supplies, or ancillaries at a single location. With the churn and consolidation it is also a very good opportunity to update our 'rolodex' with the current contacts so that when I do need something it is a good anchor point for the year going forward. And then there is always the chance and opportunity to see something that may not be obvious but once you see it, you know you have to have it because it complements what you currently do, either in terms of expanding your portfolio, adding efficiencies, or just providing the freshness to keep customers coming.

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

The two big areas of interest are decoration of hard goods (swag) and apparel. As traditional communications tools are being reengineered and many operations might be experiencing declining print volumes, this new space offers an opportunity to continue to be relevant and add value to our parent organization.

The other area for us is around the wide-format and signage space especially in terms of learning what new materials and new products we can integrate into our existing workflow while expanding our product range. There are so many options and materials that in many cases even our suppliers don't know or don't offer, and a show likes this provides the perfect opportunity to learn about them.

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

Seeing multiple options prompts us to think outside the box that a vendor demo center tends to put you in. You are free to kind of make your own recipe, and it provides an opportunity to actually learn more in a shorter time.

For example, if a particular vendor highlights something about their offering you can quickly walk over to another booth and see if that piece of equipment or software can do something similar and if so how. It can be a great first intro to then follow up with a deep dive.

Is networking with industry peers an important reason for attending the Expo?

Our sector is so unique in many ways because in most cases we are not directly in competition with each other. Therefore every opportunity to interact with a peer is of tremendous value, not just for immediate gain but to build a long term interaction.

The networking also provides the opportunity to share knowledge right during the show because they might have seen something or talked to someone that perfectly dovetails with what I am looking for but may have missed.

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

Since we have some new members on our team this will provide an opportunity for a great introduction to what we are all about. As many of us have started facing hiring challenges in terms of previous industry experience, having some new team members attend provides them the framework to learn, network and build their own expertise, which in turn will benefit the whole organization.

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