In-plants Meeting This Week in Florida

By Bob Neubauer

In-plant managers from Tennessee, Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, Nebraska and other states met in Clearwater Beach, Florida, for three days this week for the first Southeastern University Print, Digital and Mail Conference (SUPDMC) since 2019.

The conference started off strong with keynote speaker Meridith Alexander who motivated the audience with her presentation titled “Unleash the Epic You.” Then Patrick Bruchs, former manager of Wright State University’s in-plant, talked about his school’s unwise decision to close the in-plant years ago and outsource to Xerox, only to recently terminate that contract and reopen the in-plant.

Drew Burgering of Columbus State University, who organized the SUPDMC conference, welcomes attendees on Monday.

In other sessions, Tammy Slone of Cedarville University offered ideas that have helped her in-plant grow and impact campus relations; Paul Jones of the Montgomery County (Ohio) Board of County Commissioners shared his experiences working at different sized in-plants; Marshall Gray of the University of Florida covered the ins and outs of offering passport services; and Steve Burdette of the University of Texas at Austin examined the USPS 10-year plan.

The agenda also included roundtable discussions on topics like mailing and surviving through the pandemic. Between sessions, attendees got to tour a vendor fair and learn about new technologies. And, of course, there was plenty of time for networking, which managers sorely needed after waiting three years since the last SUPDMC conference in 2019.

Attendees gather at the registration area on Sunday for the Southeastern University Print, Digital and Mail Conference

Steve and Mary Burdette (right) visit the Ricoh booth in the vendor area.

Meridith Alexander gives the opening keynote at the Southeastern University Print, Digital and Mail Conference

Steve Burdette leads one of the SUPDMC sessions.

One of the speakers at the Southeastern University Print, Digital and Mail Conference

Attendees gather for lunch at the Southeastern University Print, Digital and Mail Conference

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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.

SUPDMC In-plant Conference Wraps Up in Florida