A Full Schedule

IT’S BEEN a busy month for me. After a long break, I hit the road for a series of conferences and plant tours that brought me from Texas to Ohio to Washington, D.C.

First I headed down to the University of North Texas to attend the TACUP conference. The Texas Association of College and University Printers has been meeting for 30 years now, and this year’s event drew 42 attendees. I had the opportunity to talk with in-plant managers from all over Texas. I also gave a presentation that included suggestions on steps in-plants can take to survive and thrive. (See full story on page 14.)

While there, I toured Tonya Demerson’s in-plant for the City of Denton and talked with her about the future of her recently downsized operation. I also walked with Jimmy Friend through his operations on the University of North Texas campus. The in-plant’s HP Indigo 3000 digital press is doing more work every year, he said, and now outputs 70 percent of the jobs the shop takes in. These digitally printed jobs have won UNT a number of In-Print awards, all of which hang proudly in the in-plant’s waiting area.

From Texas I travelled to MBO America’s facility in Westhampton, N.J., where the company was holding a mini trade show in partnership with more than 20 vendors. They demonstrated their equipment, in many cases as part of long “document factories” that took paper from a roll, then printed, cut, folded and bound it, all inline.

The following week I was off to Ohio for a visit to 4over’s new printing plant near Dayton. I watched the ribbon cutting (see video on our Web site), toured the trade printer’s facility, then drove to Columbus to visit Joe Tucker, Ohio State Printer, and see his operations. We even visited the site of his soon-to-be-completed plant in downtown Columbus. There, in a building that once housed the Lazarus department store, we climbed over debris in the construction site, squeezed through narrow openings and jumped trenches to see where the presses and digital printers will be located, come February.

Two weeks later I hopped an Amtrak train down to Washington, D.C., to attend the second annual Digital Printing in Government Forum, organized by INTERQUEST. There, I ran into several managers of government in-plants (the Supreme Court, the CIA, the Department of the Treasury, to name a few) and got to chat with new GPO Public Printer Robert C. Tapella, who gave the keynote address.

Though I doubt I can keep up the pace of this action-packed month for much longer, it has been nice to see so many in-plant managers. I look forward to seeing more of you in the new year.