IPMA Conference Wraps Up, Inspiring and Delighting Participants
IPI Editor Bob Neubauer speaking at the IPMA 2023 conference.
The In-plant Printing and Mailing Conference has wrapped up in Bonita Springs, Florida, and what a conference it was. More than 140 in-plant managers were there, comparing notes, attending sessions, and cheering each other on at the awards ceremony. I talked with countless managers to learn what projects they’re working on at home, and I got dozens of story ideas. The overall vibe at this second “post-COVID” conference was very enthusiastic, and managers were excited to see each other again and look toward the future.
Bob Neubauer moderating a panel discussion on inkjet.
I was honored to kick off the conference with my Monday morning presentation. I revealed the results of our latest in-plant survey (Equipment Installations and Applications at In-plants) and highlighted where in-plants see opportunities for growth. More than 60% said they have expanded their services over the past two years. Judging by their planned equipment purchases, we can expect a jump in flatbed printer installations and an uptick in production inkjet press purchases.
IPI Editor Bob Neubauer (second from left) congratulates In-Print 2023 Best of Show winners Judy Bankson, of Oregon State University, and GPO representatives Greg Estep, Darrell Mahoney, and Ravinder Birdi.
I also moderated an informative panel discussion on Wednesday, which featured Nathan Thole (Iowa State University), Danny Kirkland (Encompass Health) and Mike Lincoln (State of Colorado) sharing their experiences with production inkjet. They all agreed that transitioning to inkjet has brought great benefits to their in-plants and opened up capacity to bring in more work. The ability to add color to previously monochrome documents has been a boon at the State of Colorado, and at Iowa State, the in-plant has moved all of its products to inkjet without fear because the quality of the output is excellent.
Del Shankle of CHRISTUS Health talks about his in-plant’s expansion.
One highlight of the week was a session yesterday led by the ever-enthusiastic Del Shankle of CHRISTUS Health. He talked about his in-plant’s expansion from a small shop with slow turnaround times and no consistent standards to an award-winning model in-plant that continues to push the limits and take on complicated wide-format projects. The in-plant prints all the health system’s braille signage and has standardized all signage across CHRISTUS Health. Turnaround times have gone from weeks to days, and the in-plant saves an average of 64% over what outside printers charge – money that can be better used to help patients.
Greg Cholmondeley offers a primer on Artificial Intelligence.
Also standing out was a primer on Artificial Intelligence by Greg Cholmondeley of Keypoint Intelligence. He described the evolution of AI to the point where it has developed “theory of mind,” the ability of model what a person is likely thinking and develop a strategy around that. In answer to his own question “Will AI wipe out humanity?” he made the audience squirm a bit when he said, “Possibly. Even probably.” Still, he didn’t think AI would take away jobs in printing but rather be used as a tool that will change many jobs.
At the IPMA 2023 Conference, Ken Johnson (Ball State Univerity), Richard Beto (University of Texas), Steve Burdette (University of Texas) and Consultant Howie Fenton chew the fat in the vendor hall.
“You’re going to have people change from being software operators to software managers,” he said.
Cholmondeley sees AI being used in many ways: service and training, to replace equipment manuals; predictive maintenance; production analytics; print job onboarding (to turn emailed jobs into usable job tickets); scheduling and estimating; and prepress automation – to name just a few. His overall message to in-plant managers was to start gathering data now so that after vendors have incorporated AI into their products –which they certainly will – you will have years of data ready to be interpreted by AI.
Another notable session at IPMA 2023 was a Thursday lunch presentation by the director of the U.S. GPO, Hugh Halpern, who offered leadership lessons in a session titled "When the Customer Becomes the Boss." His four takeaways:
- Communicate transparently. Then communicate again.
- A leader without followers is just someone on a walk.
- Always work your values.
- Even if you have a big job, be a regular guy.
At the awards ceremony Tuesday night, many in-plants were honored, though the most touching of the accolades was for retired in-plant manager Larry Clements, who has donated his photography services for years to IPMA. He received a surprise “Photographer Emeritus” award and a standing ovation.
John Cruser (Bloomberg) moderates a wide-format panel featuring Erica Linn (Lockheed Martin), Tammy Slone (Cedarville University) and Wesley Troup (World Bank).
The In-Print Best of Show winners were revealed in a pair of videos I shot and edited showing the judges selecting those winners. The U.S. Government Publishing Office won the offset award and Oregon State University took its second Best of Show for non-offset. OSU also won the Attendee’s Choice Award for that same impressive piece.
More than 140 managers attended the IPMA 2023 Conference
GPO won again in a different category, taking the IPMA Innovation Award. CHRISTUS Health was honored with the In-House Promotional Excellence Award, and Cedarville University was recognized as In-Plant of the Year.
There was so much more that went on at IPMA 2023, but you’ll have to wait to hear about that until I get a chance to write about it. I shot a lot of video as well, which will soon be edited and up on our site. For those who attended the conference, which ended Thursday afternoon, I’m sure you’re looking forward to some much needed rest after such an eventful event. It was great to see so many in-plant managers in one place.
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.
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