In-plant Events

PEWAUKEE, WI—June 12, 2007—More than 100 members of Wisconsin’s printing and education communities were on hand during a sunny and pleasant midday dedication ceremony for the new Harry V. Quadracci Printing Education and Technology Center (HVQ PETC) in Pewaukee, WI. Located on the campus of the Waukesha County Technical College, this new facility represents a partnership between Wisconsin’s thriving printing community and the state’s technical college system. The 23,600 square foot facility (constructed at a cost of $3.5 million) contains fifteen offices, three lecture halls, two computer graphics classrooms, a digital photography studio, a color measurement lab, a bookstore and a 4,000 square foot

IF YOU try to remain “just a printer,” you’re not going to be in business very long. Those words, spoken by Xerox President Ursula Burns in her keynote address, reflected the overall message of this year’s Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) conference, held recently in San Francisco. Taking the theme “We’re Not Just Printers Anymore,” ACUP 2007 endeavored to remind its in-plant attendees that they are communications providers, and should think beyond print when adding new products and services. Collaborate with admissions and other departments to come up with new ways your in-plant can add value, urged Burns. And never

In just 19 days, the in-plant event of the year will be kicking off in Oklahoma City. That’s where the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association is holding its annual conference June 6-9 at the Renaissance Oklahoma City Convention Center. If you’re an in-plant manager, this is the conference to attend. Not only will managers benefit from a full schedule of educational sessions, they can meet other managers from around the country and compare notes. A vendor fair will feature some of the latest graphic arts technology, and a tour of University of Oklahoma Printing Services will let attendees see some of that technology in

DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY—It’s official: drupa 2008 will break all previous records. With some 170,000 square metres of net exhibition space (roughly equivalent to 40 soccer fields) and exhibitor numbers topping 1,800, the print media fair to be staged from 29 May to 11 June 2008 will be the biggest ever in its more than 50-year history. This will entail the use of the Düsseldorf Trade Fair Center’s full capacity, including all new additions. There were already indications of this trend last year, shortly before the official close of registrations on 31 October. Increases to leading international technology suppliers’ space requirements, plus larger-scale joint presentations from

In-plant managers from around the country are about to start packing their bags for Oklahoma City. The In-plant Printing and Mailing Association is holding its annual conference June 6-9 at the Renaissance Oklahoma City Convention Center. The event will feature a full schedule of educational sessions, ample networking opportunities for managers, a vendor fair and a tour of one of the country’s premier in-plants: University of Oklahoma Printing Services. The $12 million, 100-employee operation has two five-color presses and a full-service mailing operation in its 45,000-square-foot facility. Evening events include a ballgame at the Bricktown Ballpark and the much-anticipated IPMA awards banquet,

Muller Martini and Nipson America recently hosted an open house at Muller’s headquarters in Hauppauge, N.Y. With the theme “A New Day Dawns for Book Production,” the event included live demonstrations of digital book manufacturing equipment and presentations from on-demand experts. A complete digital book printing and binding workflow was shown in action, consisting of a Nipson VaryPress 400 duplex digital printing system along with components of the Muller Martini SigmaLine OnDemand solution. The workflow included two Nipson VaryPress 400 digital printers with EMT unwinder, StarCut sheeter/stacker from FME, a Shuttleworth Star Roller conveyor and a SigmaBinder perfect binder, SigmaTower cooling tower and Esprit three-knife

I JUST got back from a coast-to-coast excursion that took me from San Francisco to Boston. I flew out to California in mid-April to attend the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) conference. The event was packed with more than 130 in-plant attendees from 33 states and four other countries. It was wonderful to see so much interaction between managers from such geographically diverse places as New Zealand, Mississippi, Alaska, Scotland, Maine and Florida, to name a few. Attendees fell easily into conversation about their mutual challenges, sharing stories and laughs as if they had been friends for years. ACUP was very well run,

THIS YEAR’S AIIM/On Demand Conference & Expo certainly had some obstacles to overcome in its first year at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. With the Boston Marathon running on the show’s opening day, hotel rooms were at a premium. Then a storm assaulted the city, discouraging some from driving in. And as if that weren’t enough, the show had to compete with other industry events, such as the Association of College and University Printers conference, taking place at the same time in San Francisco, and the PrintFest trade show, which kicked off later that week in Long Beach, Calif. Despite all

The On Demand Conference & Expo completed its 2007 run last week at the Boston Convention & Exposition Center. Changing locations has been part of the story with this event since the move from its home in New York City to Philadelphia and now on to Boston through 2008. While the facility was striking, exhibitors were speculating that show floor traffic was lighter and more regional than last year (attendance figures have yet to be released). Weather woes on the East Coast and complications caused by the marathon on Monday may have dampened attendance. Close to 200 exhibitors participated in the On Demand section of

Sustained economic growth and smart adoption of technologies to create new value-added services have helped put the U.S. printing industry in its strongest position in many years. That was the consensus of the speakers at the first NPES Industry Summit, held recently in Chicago. It provided an optimistic view of print’s current and future prospects and a preview of the world’s most promising future growth markets. The Summit, presented by NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, combined the 26th edition of the PRINT OUTLOOK economic forecasting conference with the NPES Spring Conference and the Spring meeting of PRIMIR, the Print