Another Successful Inkjet Summit

By Bob Neubauer

Attendees of the recent Inkjet Summit were full of praise for the event, now in its fourth year. About 100 printers — including more than 15 in-plants — met in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., for three days to learn about all things inkjet. The education-packed event featured numerous presentations by current users of production inkjet presses about the great success they have had with this technology.

Three of the in-plant managers attending the Inkjet Summit: Brett Johnson of Mayo Clinic, Doug Maxwell, of BYU, and Ryan Sondrup, of BYU.

The event, produced by NAPCO Media and nGage Events, kicked off Monday evening at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club with a keynote address by Conference Chair Marco Boer, VP of IT Strategies, who discussed the many benefits of inkjet technology, and why attendees should not wait for their competitors to beat them into inkjet.

“The longer you wait,” he cautioned attendees, “the more you’re going to find yourself at a disadvantage.”

Boer was followed by Jamie Huff, president of Progressive Impressions International, who related some of his experiences as an inkjet press user. Then a panel of key inkjet technology suppliers — Canon, HP, Ricoh and Xerox — answered questions from Boer about their offerings.

Printing Impressions' Editor Mark Michelson questions a panel of inkjet users that includes Jud Posner with the Church of Scientology's in-plant; Dave Johannes of IWCO Direct; and Rick Kegley of Harte Hanks.

On Tuesday, InfoTrends’ Barb Pellow started things off with a session that featured two users of inkjet presses: John Jeffrey Bogart, of Freedom Graphic Systems, and Bob Kolva, of Action Mailers. From there, attendees broke into four market segments based on their predominant applications: books, direct mail/marketing, general commercial and transaction. They heard from current users of inkjet technology, who shared their experiences, and sponsors presented case studies for each segment.

Several in-plants participated as speakers and panelists:

Conference Chair Marco Boer (right) chats with four leading inkjet press manufacturers. From left: Eric Wiesner General Manager, PageWide Web Press, HP Inc.; Jonathan Edwards, Vice President Inkjet Business Development, Xerox; Mike Herold, Director, Global Marketing for Inkjet Solutions, Ricoh; and Francis A. McMahon, Sr. VP Marketing and Sales Operations, Production Print Solutions, Canon Solutions America.

Conference Chair Marco Boer (right) chats with four leading inkjet press manufacturers. From left: Eric Wiesner GM, PageWide Web Press, HP Inc.; Jonathan Edwards, VP, inkjet business development, Xerox; Mike Herold, director, global marketing for inkjet solutions, Ricoh; and Francis A. McMahon, Sr. VP, marketing and sales operations, production print solutions, Canon Solutions America.

Brett Birky, of Urban Lending Solutions (IPG’s May cover story) talked about his company’s decision to create a new in-plant by adding a pair of Ricoh InfoPrint 5000 GP continuous-feed color inkjet presses.
Ralph Graves, of TCS-Time Inc., discussed his in-plant’s criteria for choosing a Xerox Impika inkjet press.
Jud Posner, with the Church of Scientology's in-plant, sat on a panel of inkjet users and related his experiences installing a new Fuji 540W high-speed inkjet web press (see full story in IPG's May issue).

This year’s Inkjet Summit includes an unprecedented number of in-plants from a variety of industries. Among the in-plants in attendance were: Brigham Young University, the Cincinnati Insurance Co., the Church of Scientology International, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Houston Independent School District, Mayo Clinic, Progressive Insurance, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the Christian Broadcasting Network, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, University of North Texas and Urban Lending Solutions.

The Inkjet Summit concluded Wednesday evening with an awards dinner. The winners were:

Canon Solutions America accepts the "Company to Watch Out For" award.

HP: Best Sponsor Case Study Presentation – Book Segment
Xerox: Best Sponsor Case Study Presentation – Direct Mail Segment
Kodak: Best Sponsor Case Study Presentation – General Commercial Segment
Ricoh: Best Sponsor Case Study Presentation – Transaction Segment
Company to watch out for: Canon Solutions America
Overall Contributing Attendee: Robert Kashan, CEO, EarthColor

Watch for more coverage of the Inkjet Summit in IPG.

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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.