IPMA Conference Just Days Away
Networking with other in-plant managers is an important part of the IPMA conference experience.
On Sunday, June 8, in-plant managers from around the country will gather once again for the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association’s annual conference. After a successful Midwest event last year in Des Moines, Iowa, IPMA travels to the Pacific Northwest this year where it will take over Spokane, Washington, for five days. It’s the first time IPMA has brought its annual conference to the Pacific Northwest in over two decades — since Portland hosted back in 2001.
Following an opening reception Sunday evening, IPI Editor Bob Neubauer will kick off the conference Monday morning with the opening keynote presentation, In-plant Expansion Strategies, Equipment Trends, and Best Practices. Filled with data from a recent IPI survey, he will detail the recent equipment investments in-plants have been making and plan to make, noting which new services are gaining traction. (Get those answers in advance by downloading the report here.)
Right after him will be Konica Minolta’s Frank Mallozzi with a presentation on Leading Transformation in the In-plant Era. Then attendees will be let loose into the vendor fair, where an impressive 47 vendors will have displays and equipment set up.
Greg Cholmondeley, principal analyst at Keypoint Intelligence, updated IPMA attendees on advances in artificial intelligence in a packed session at IPMA 2024. | Credit: Sam Lauersdorf Photography
A lunch session by Canon’s Lucy Perez-Sierra and John Ingraham will focus on How Technology and New Applications Can Drive Your Success. Then a number of regional roundtable discussions will allow attendees to hear what other in-plants in their parts of the country have been doing and make connections. Following that, breakout sessions will cover robotics and AI, marketing, workflow, and end-to-end ecosystems.
The next two days will be filled with opportunities to visit vendors, network with other in-plants, and attend many more educational sessions. Highlights include:
- Dave Rosendahl, president and co-founder of MindFire, talking about how leaders can cultivate resilient, high-performing teams;
- IPMA favorite Steve Gilliland, a master storyteller and comedian;
- Consultant Howie Fenton, talking about How to Prepare Request for Proposals (RFPs) for Software and Hardware Purchases.
Managers at a session during IPMA 2024.
On Tuesday night, the awards ceremony will honor score of in-plants that won In-Print and IPMA awards. At the end, the winners of the In-Print 2025 Best of Division and Best of Show awards will be revealed (in a series of entertaining videos now being painstakingly finalized by IPI’s Neubauer).
On Thursday, attendees will tour Inland Empire Paper Co. to watch the process of turning wood chips into pulp and paper.
The conference will take place June 8-12, at Spokane’s Davenport Grand Hotel. Learn more here.
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.
