From The Editor New York Stories

Early last month, In-Plant Graphics hosted its first educational conference and exposition, in conjunction with our company's successful BookTech conference, now in its seventh year. I traveled to New York for the event and moderated several panel discussions.

I enjoyed the opportunity to sit and talk with so many in-plant managers, both from the New York area and from out of state. Two in-plant representatives even flew in from the University of California-Davis. One of them, Alan Bump, told me his in-plant has added several Heidelberg 9110s and some bindery gear in the past year.

On the first day of the conference, I had lunch with Tim Steenhoek, of ING Americas in Des Moines, and Scott Nelson, of Otter Tail Power Co., who flew in from Fergus Falls, Minn., to enjoy New York's comparably balmy 30-degree weather. Scott, who manages an eight-employee in-plant, told me of his plan to increase the amount of insourcing his shop does for outside businesses.

Tim Steenhoek, who was also a speaker at the conference, has seen a lot of changes come to his 62-employee in-plant over the past couple of years as company mergers brought the consolidation of other in-plants and the outsourcing of offset capabilities. Tim recently completed a successful justification of the in-plant. I was impressed with his operation's proficiency in variable data printing.

I ran into Jesse Rambo, of Rutgers University, who told me of the tough times and tight budgets he's been facing as a university in-plant. Then, at an evening reception, I caught up with some New York City in-plant friends like Bruce Krueger and Nicholas Monello of the city's Department of Health, and Tony Hinds, at Prudential Financial. I also met some new folks, like Ed Nash, at AOL Time Warner's Manhattan in-plant, where a four-color Komori is the centerpiece of his 15-employee operation.

I even met an up-and-coming in-plant manager. At one session, the direct mail manager of a medical product supplier revealed that her company was interested in starting an in-plant to print its own direct mail pieces. She was attending sessions at the IPG Conference to learn more. (You can be sure IPG will keep tabs on her efforts.)

New York isn't the only place I've been recently. I flew out to Missouri to tour the University of Missouri-Columbia Printing Services operation, this month's cover story. Director Rick Wise spent several hours proudly showing me around his impressive operation.

I also went to International Publishing Management Association headquarters to help coordinate the judging of In-Print 2003. Though we spread this year's judging out over two days, it wasn't any easier picking winners out of so many excellent entries. In the end, judges singled out 93 entries for prizes. (Find out more.) Keep an eye on our Web site to find out if you were one of them.