Eastman Kodak Co.

With equipment specs, pictures and video all available online, why should an in-plant manager bother going to Graph Expo any more? Those who made the trip to Chicago last month have lots of good reasons.

The official numbers aren't in yet, but the crowds at this week's Graph Expo show in Chicago seemed larger than in previous years. Those who attended certainly had a number of new products to check out. Here are just a few of the new machines unveiled at Graph Expo.

On Wednesday Canon U.S.A., announced the new imagePRESS C800 Digital Color Press Series, designed for small-to-medium in-plants. Comprised of the imagePRESS C800 and imagePRESS C700, this series is able to handle a variety of media options, including heavyweight coated stock, textured stock and envelopes.

As director of Printing, Mailing and Document Services for the University of Oklahoma—renowned for its storied Sooners football team, this year's Big 12 preseason favorite—John Sarantakos is used to thinking big and going long.

The Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase & Co., in concert with hedge funds, commodities traders and others, manipulated commodities markets, breaching antitrust laws and costing Eastman Kodak Co. dearly, Kodak claims in a lawsuit.

These products for the in-plant market will be on display at Graph Expo.

Interesting hot products for in-plants

Despite some chilly spring weather, Milwaukee gave a warm welcome to the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association last month. More than 130 in-plant managers were on hand to celebrate IPMA's 50th anniversary during a very busy conference. Their ranks included many first-time and long-absent attendees, which added a new dynamic to the discussions throughout the four-day event. A number of government printers from the National Government Publishing Association, now part of IPMA, were there this year, as well as two attendees from Australia.

When Gerry Pinela took over as supervisor of Central Services for the City of Torrance, Calif., in June of 2007, the job submission process at the nine-employee in-plant was somewhat laborious. Customers filled out a three-part NCR form, and then the staff manually entered the job information into an Excel spreadsheet. The manual process was time consuming and lacked the tracking and reporting capabilities Pinela needed to effectively manage the workflow.

This was an action-packed week for in-plant managers. More than 130 of them met in downtown Milwaukee for the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference, which featured one of the largest vendor exhibit areas in many years.