IPMA Conference Brings Hundreds to Des Moines

By Bob Neubauer

On Sunday June 3, the world’s largest gathering of in-plant managers got off to a great start in Des Moines, Iowa, when managers from across the country met for the opening reception of the 2024 In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference.

IPI editor Bob Neubauer presented research data on the in-plant industry.

With the theme “Insure Your Success” the educational program began June 4 with a breakfast presentation by IPI Editor Bob Neubauer, who reflected on his 30 years covering the in-plant industry before providing a status report on the in-plant industry, incorporating new data from an IPI survey.

He was followed by Danny Adams with his keynote titled “Laughter is Medicine.” Though his message was that people work better with laughter in their lives, his presentation will be most remembered for the orchestra of animal noises he conducted.

Then attendees visited the vendor fair and talked with the 43 exhibitors about their products. Though it was no drupa (also taking place right now in Germany), it featured key technologies for in-plants, including digital printing, wide-format, and Web-to-print. One unique feature was the Monday afternoon “puppy cuddle hour” presented by the Animal Rescue League of Iowa.

Greg Cholmondeley

Educational sessions and keynote presentations have continued over the past three days. Greg Cholmondeley, Principal Analyst at Keypoint Intelligence, fascinated and scared the audience with his update on artificial intelligence and robotics. He showed videos of prototype robots that can do a surprising number of tasks, and predicted that in-plants may see robots in their shops within the next 1-3 years.

Danny Adams brought laughter to the conference, especially when he conducted this orchestra of barnyard animal noises.

In a session on promotional products, four managers talked about how they took advantage of IPMA’s partnership with Swagforce to start selling swag. Some have surpassed their predicted revenue goals. A session on leadership featured a dozen managers who had interviewed a leader back in their organizations relaying what qualities they most admired. Some common themes included leading by example, learning about the lives of those on your team, and leaving your ego behind and focusing on the team’s success.

Managers discuss their promo product experiences and the trends they're seeing.

At the awards banquet, winners of IPMA Awards and In-Print 2024 awards were honored. The ceremony culminated with the announcement of the Best of Show winners.

On the last day, attendees traveled to Iowa State University Printing Services to see the in-plant’s Canon varioPRINT iX3200 sheetfed inkjet press. Watch for full coverage of IPMA 2024 in the days ahead.

IPMA Conference 2024

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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.