In-plant Road Show at Missouri State Draws a Crowd

By Bob Neubauer

On Tuesday, dozens of in-plant managers met on the campus of Missouri State University in Springfield for an In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) Road Show event, the first of eight Road Shows planned in 2023.

Mark McCarty, manager of Printing and Postal Services, welcomed his peers and led a day of education that culminated with a shop tour. Attending in-plants included the University of Oklahoma, University of Missouri, Olathe Public Schools, Arkansas State University, City Utilities of Springfield, College of the Ozarks, Shelter Insurance, O’Reilly Auto Parts, and more. Attendees had ample time to visit the tabletop displays of the sponsors.

Managers attend the educational sessions at the IPMA Road Show at Missouri State University.

The vendor areas at the IPMA Road Show

Managers from College of the Ozarks.

Mark McCarty talks with fellow in-plant managers.

The vendor areas at the IPMA Road Show

In-plant managers from Olathe Public Schools.

Jeff McNeely (right) of University of Missouri shakes hands with a vendor.

John Sarantakos (left) of University of Oklahoma and Mark McCarty, of Missouri State University, stand with one of the sponsors.

In one session, Ricoh's Ken Tucker discussed emerging trends, technologies, and opportunities that are transforming “traditional” in-plants into efficient, fully optimized, secure, and compliant "integrated resource centers." In another session, Pitney Bowes’ Eric Williams talked about “How Commingling Can Reap Great Returns for In-plants.” A roundtable discussion allowedin-plant managers to share success stories.

Matt Barry of Swagforce gave a popular session on selling promo products.

Perhaps the most well received session, however, was given by Matt Barry of Swagforce, who told attendees how to “Turn Your In-plant Into a Swag Selling Powerhouse.” Swagforce recently inked a deal with IPMA that will give members free access to Swagforce’s promotional products website and sales support to help them sell apparel and promotional products to their customers. During the presentation, John Sarantakos, director of the University of Oklahoma’s in-plant, told the audience about OU’s positive experience selling promotional items and encouraged others to add this service.

Attendees got to tour the MSU Printing and Postal Services operation, which just took delivery of a Xerox Iridesse. They watched a demo on the Duplo iSaddle booklet maker and asked questions.

“The best thing about the event for me was I got to meet and establish a connection with other in-plants in the Springfield area,” says McCarty.

The next IPMA Road Show will be in Lansing, Michigan, April 13-14, closely followed by a Road Show in Tyler, Texas, on May 11, hosted by CHRISTUS Health.

(All photos courtesy of Larry Clements)

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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.