Reflections: Another Great IPMA Conference
IPG Editor Bob Neubauer accepts the IPMA Outstanding Partner Award.
I just drove back from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia yesterday, after spending a very productive five days in Pittsburgh for the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference. It was my 23rd IPMA conference — an unbelievable fact to me — and it was one of the most interactive, energetic ones yet.
I saw scores of familiar faces and lots of new ones too; 50 first-time attendees showed up this year. I got the scoop on several recent and upcoming installations (for example there are now four state government in-plants in the process of getting a production inkjet press) and heard about other interesting in-plant initiatives (one university is consolidating several campus in-plants into one).
Perhaps the most gratifying moment for me personally was accepting the IPMA's Outstanding Partner award during Tuesday night's award ceremony. Countless people came up to me afterward to congratulate me and thank me for the support IPG has given to the in-plant industry. As I told the audience from the stage when I received the award, I've always seen it as my mission to make in-plants look good by publicizing their accomplishments in articles to help them get the respect they deserve from their parent organizations.
The award banquet went very well. Several in-plants were called to the stage to receive IPMA awards for their accomplishments. One touching presentation was the the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award, given to a very surprised Rob Lingard of DMBA, who is retiring in the coming year. He has served IPMA as a volunteer for 20 years.
Pittsburgh from the deck of the riverboat Wednesday evening.
And then there were the Best of Show awards, always one of my favorite parts, since I'm one of a handful of people who know who the winners are. I got to see the surprise on the faces of Richard Beto and John Cruser as they realized their in-plants (UT Austin and Bloomberg) had won by watching the videos I made. (Watch them for yourself here.)
This was Mike Loyd's first conference as IPMA executive director and he did a stellar job of running the event. It was the perfect mixture of education, conversation and fun. One of the best memories is of standing on the deck of the riverboat Wednesday evening as we chugged up and down Pittsburgh's three rivers, talking to managers and enjoying the camaraderie.
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.
