Live, On Stage...

Like anyone who's learned to play guitar, I spent part of my youth daydreaming about being up on stage, hitting the power chords and thrilling the wildly cheering crowds. Though the rock star part has mostly eluded me, I do find myself on stage now and then as editor of IPG—though my "performances" are far less musical than I had once imagined, and the cheering only comes after I finally shut up.

Still, I enjoy taking the stage once in a while at industry conferences, to sing the praises of in-plants, so to speak. One highlight of these events is meeting the in-plant managers in the audience. So to increase the likelihood of seeing some of you at upcoming conferences, I thought I'd let you in on a couple of opportunities (my "tour schedule," if you will).

• First, I'll be moderating a panel at the On Demand Conference, in New York, on Tuesday, March 9. The session, entitled "Best Practices for the In-plant," will feature several managers explaining how they streamlined their workflows and integrated their in-plants with their parent organizations' core businesses.

• A mere six days later, on Monday, March 15, I'll be back in New York at the In-Plant Graphics Conference, chairing a panel called "How to Keep Your In-plant Strong." We will discuss justifying new equipment, enhancing productivity, adding revenue and becoming crucial to your organization's mission.

• On Tuesday, April 27, I'll be addressing the Association of College and University Printers conference, right here in Philadelphia, offering a session called "In-plant Trends and Future Challenges" that will feature the results of some recent IPG industry surveys.

I suppose the other part of rock star life I get to experience with this job is the travelling. I recently returned from Spain, where Hewlett-Packard showed a large contingent of journalists some of the new printing products it will debut at Drupa, including a modified HP-Indigo 3050.

Shortly before that I was in New York to watch Xerox debut the new DocuTechs I told you about in my story last month. The most interesting part of that day was my meeting with Susan Anderson, manager of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Printing Services. She was a member of the in-plant panel Xerox assembled to help design the DocuTech 100 and 120. She told me how she and other managers insisted the new device be "foolproof" to operate, handle a wider range of stocks, produce better half tones, stack more 11x17˝ sheets, etc.—and Xerox listened.

Well, it's time to start rehearsing for my upcoming gigs. I hope to see a few of you in the crowd. Stop by afterwards and tell me about your in-plant. (But please, don't hold up lighters while I'm speaking. And I will not be performing "Freebird" no matter how many times you shout it.)