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.
With nearly 30 educational sessions taking place during the four-day span of last week's In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference, managers had a busy week indeed. To help catch you up on what you may have missed, here's a brief recap of some of the sessions that took place in Charleston, S.C.
Ricoh brought IPMA into the worldwide spotlight when it launched its new Ricoh Pro C651EX/C751EX/C751 mid-production digital color systems at the In-Plant Printing & Mailing Association conference.
In a strong acknowledgement of how important the in-plant industry is to its business, Ricoh Americas Corp. debuted its latest digital color device at the In-Plant Printing & Mailing Association (IPMA) conference in Charleston, S.C., on Monday. Before a crowd of about 140 in-plant managers, Carl Joachim, VP of Marketing for Ricoh's Production Print Solutions Group, announced the new Ricoh Pro C651EX/C751EX/C751 color production system, which delivers output speeds of up to 65/75 ppm respectively, and includes printing, scanning and copying functionality.
Hot Products for in-plants, including InfoPrint ProcessDirector (IPPD) a modular software and Océ PRISMAproduction software, :Apogee 7 workflow management suite, inkjet papers, FSC-certified paper and more.
For Years, the in-plant at Steelcase Inc. received jobs in a variety of disjoined ways: e-mail, FTP and even physical drop-offs. Back in 2006, only about 40 percent of jobs were submitted electronically to the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based in-plant, mostly via e-mail. This had begun to take its toll on the productivity of the five-employee shop.
Bloomsburg University Printing Services is a busy in-plant, printing everything from letterhead and labels to invitations, marketing brochures and programs for sporting events and concerts. The shop prints all of the Bloomsburg, Pa.-based college's materials, since there are few outside printers in this rural area. To help it in this task, the in-plant recently installed a Lanier C720s Pro color printer.
Health and Human Services Printing must mobilize at a moment’s notice to serve the citizens of Texas during their time of need.
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.
Ricoh realigned its production print resources with the formation of Ricoh Production Print Solutions (RPPS), incorporating InfoPrint Solutions and the Ricoh Production Printing Business Group’s marketing and planning resources from Japan. The organization will reportedly provide a more effective and efficient approach in a competitive marketplace.
