Last week more than 135 in-plant managers met in Charleston, S.C. for the 52nd In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association conference. With 44 first-time attendees and more than 135 in-plants overall, the conference was bustling with activity, conversations and excitement.
When it comes to variable data jobs, in-plants can add more value by helping with the campaign planning process, says Kodak's Mark Egeling.
Think beyond printing. Promote your in-plant as a document specialist, able to scan and archive old documents.
Now in its 18th year, the On Demand Conference and Exposition tried something new this time when it moved south of the Mason-Dixon line to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Not everyone was happy with the results. Though some exhibits were packed at intervals, others were not so busy. Perhaps the absence of key companies like Xerox, Kodak, Presstek and Standard caused some potential attendees to skip this year's event. Or maybe D.C. was too far for the Northeast day trippers who attended previous years' shows in Philadelphia, Boston and New York.
Last week, the On Demand Conference and Exposition completed its 2011 run at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The venue itself ended up being part of the story because it contributed to the event feeling more like a conference with an exhibit hall, rather than a trade show with an education track
I'm on a plane as I write this, flying home from Rochester, N.Y., after attending and presenting at a Xerox Thought Leadership Workshop. Xerox holds these events periodically, bringing a couple dozen in-plant managers together for two days of tours, presentations and networking at its Gil Hatch Center for Customer Innovation.
The theme of the event was "Print Delivers! " Print is no longer simply ink on paper. It has evolved into a tool that allows marketers to highly target, stimulate the five senses, integrate with the latest technology and most importantly, it drives results.
BACK IN 1996 or so, at the On Demand Show in New York City, there was a pleasant reception at an artsy gallery with great munchies, a bunch of gorgeous fashion models and a plethora of digital print visionaries, illuminati, vendor execs, and assorted hangers-on. It was the launch of PODi—the Print On Demand Initiative.
An artist at heart, Frank Oliver has designed a fast, efficient in-plant to serve more than a dozen rural New York school districts.
There is certainly no shortage of offset presses at the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville. The 47-employee in-plant boasts six of them, the centerpiece being a four-color Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 105. Still, Graphic Arts Service Manager Jack Williams knew the best days of the shop’s two-color Hamada CD-555 were behind it, and there was no shortage of two-color printing coming in the door. So in October, the in-plant installed its second two-color Heidelberg Printmaster QM 46-2.
