Road Show Brings In-plants to University of Virginia

On March 15, the University of Virginia's Printing & Copying Services department hosted an In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) Road Show that drew nearly 35 people to its Charlottesville facility. The event was organized by Director Kelly Hogg as a way to bring local in-plants together.

"There are a lot of in-plants in and around Virginia, some of which are not members of IPMA or haven’t been to the national conference," says Hogg. "This was a great opportunity for us to work with IPMA to bring these in-plants together to not only learn from the quest speakers, but to make a connection with fellow in-plants in the region."

Attendees hailed from James Madison University, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Navy Federal Credit Union, Northern Virginia Community College, Radford University, the U.S. Senate, Roanoke College, The World Bank, BB&T and Virginia Tech.

Road Show attendees came from a variety of in-plants, such as the U.S. Senate, The World Bank, Navy Federal Credit Union and several colleges and universities.

The day started with a tour of the 106-year-old in-plant's facility, where visitors saw the shop's five-color Heidelberg Speedmaster and Kodak NexPress SX2700 in action. Then came a series of educational sessions on wide-format printing, workflow, copyright law, paper issues and the next generation of print. During some roundtable discussions, attendees discussed Web submission, non-traditional services, sustainability and wide-format.

Vendors set up tables to provide more information on their products, and door prizes were awarded at the end of the day.

"I felt it was a very successful day," Hogg says. "We had a wonderful group of knowledgeable speakers covering some important topics to in-plants. I got to meet some new friends and learn from them, and hopefully they were able to take away some information that will benefit them and their operations."