SUPDMC Conference Draws In-plants to Asheville

Last week dozens of in-plant managers met in Asheville, N.C., for the 41st annual Southeastern University Printing and Digital Managers Conference. Thirty eight managers attended from 28 schools all over the southern U.S., as well as from California, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Fifteen of them were first-time attendees. They came to network, visit the 18 vendors in the exhibit area and attend educational sessions. They also took a trip to Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C., where they toured the in-plant.

Attendees gather outside the Biltmore House.

Sessions at SUPDMC 2016 covered a range of topics, from promotional products and e-publications, to variable data and Millennials in the workforce.The opening keynote speaker was Jody Fuller, a comic, speaker, writer and a soldier with three tours of duty in Iraq. A lifelong stutterer, he entertained the crowd with amusing stories of his life experiences dealing with stuttering. He stressed the importance of really listening to what people are saying and reacting accordingly, and said it's important to adapt to  changing circumstances to be able to overcome obstacles in life.

Patrick Bruchs

Patrick Bruchs, former in-plant manager at Wright State University, revealed how the promises of an outsourcing firm prevailed over his detailed records of the in-plant's cost savings and put him out of a job. He outlined a plan to start capturing data from in-plants from around the country of the cost savings they are providing to their universities and parent companies and then making this information available to help inform everyone on how beneficial in-plants really are. Here's his site.

Theresa Hatcher

Theresa Hatcher, promotional product specialist at The University of Texas at Austin, talked about how in-plants can become the distributor for all of the promotional products that their university is currently purchasing from an outside distributor. That cuts out one layer of price markups to the end user, allowing the in-plant to have a higher return on these products and still save money to the end user.

Larry Fox

Richard Beto, director of The University of Texas at Austin's in-plant, detailed his operation's recent move to a new facility, including the mistakes, the discoveries and the aftermath. Larry Fox, head of the University of California-San Diego's in-plant, offered a systematic approach to selecting Web-to-print and print shop management programs. He also gave a session about e-publications and related his in-plant's success in creating them.

A team from Western Carolina University Printing, Mailing & PAW Print Services, led by Manager Tom Frazier, talked about how they have partnered with the admissions department to create a multi-layer mailing campaign to send letters out to students who have applied to the university, using variable data printing. They have five different mailings they send to each student over several months to make sure they feel a part of the campus even before they are on campus. As a result, the university has seen a higher percentage of applicants actually enroll in the university.

Next year's SUPDMC conference will be held Oct. 15-19, 2017, in Murfreesboro, Tenn., hosted my Ed Arning from Middle Tennessee State University.