UK In-plant Managers Meet in Devonshire

Across the Atlantic, another group of university in-plants also gathered recently. The UK University Print Manager’s Group conference drew 55 delegates from all over the world to the Imperial Hotel in Torquay, Devonshire, in the south west coast of England. Twenty vendors exhibited at the event.
This year most of the program consisted of sessions by members who presented on their areas of expertise and shared best practices on a number of topics. Sessions covered team building, Web-to-print, scanning and data capture, managing talent and much more.

Andrew Scott, of Glasgow Caledonian University, led a half-day workshop called “Building a Campus-wide Digital Printing Strategy,” which included examples of good practices from around UK universities. He concluded with a summary of practical steps and issued delegates with a generic model policy document for members to adapt to their particular needs.

Robert Lane, of Arizona State University, detailed how he partnered with a leading vendor to sustainably manage all printing on campus.

Justine Wilson, of Waikato University, in New Zealand, described how her in-plant has survived outsourcing threats over the years to become an integral part of the university. She also discussed NIPPA, the Network of In-house Print Professionals Australasia, and showed a photo slide show of past conferences.

Paul Davis and Katy Yeates, of UK Research Councils, gave an overview of how they set up their scanning, data capture and records management service and the pitfalls they encountered along the way. They discussed why this service should be done in-house and considered the importance for them in providing this service and incorporating it into current work processes. They discussed the options in hardware and software and why they adopted their current systems.

Over a double session, Tony Manning, of Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP, urged delegates to consider how to best manage staff to motivate both high performers and under achievers. Most of his sessions included audience participation, some amusing video clips and stories describing situations (plus a few jokes thrown in too).

The group held its annual general meeting where delegates voted for executive board members and passed the financial accounts for the year.

Social events included a casino night, a formal dinner, a steam train journey to the picturesque town of Dartmouth and a river cruise.