Some 70 percent of quick and small commercial printers expect sales to grow in 2011 while just 7 percent expect them to decrease, according to the inaugural issue of the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) Quick and Small Commercial Printers Trends Report.
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.
"I learned how to run the Ludlows and then offset," says Rodney Brown, referring to a stint working on a Ludlow hot metal typesetting system at Kent County Publishing back in May 1965. "It was rigorous to do. I just liked it. Even back then, there was always something new."
IN MY February article, "Naysayers and Yea-Sayers," I talked about in-plants that are thriving. The in-plants in this group share something I refer to as establishing credibility with existing products first, and then using that trust to motivate interest in more valuable products, such as variable data printing (VDP).
Cyber attacks on data within organizations like Google and TJX Companies over the past few years have done more than capture the media's attention. The serious harm to a company's bottom line caused by Web attacks and malicious code is keeping information security top of mind with senior executives.
With just over two weeks to go until the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) conference in Dallas, a handful of higher-ed in-plant managers got a sort of preview this week when they met in Rochester, N.Y. On Wednesday and Thursday, Xerox held a Thought Leadership Workshop at its Gil Hatch Center for Customer Innovation, bringing about 30 in-plant representatives together for two days of tours, presentations and networking.
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
Love’s Travel and Country Stores started a new in-plant about two years ago and has saved the company more than $1 million so far. Recently the in-plant expanded yet again with the addition of new finishing equipment.
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.
Two new videos on the IPG site show scenes from Editor Bob Neubauer's recent trip to Minneapolis. There, he toured the University of St. Thomas' in-plant, then met with several in-plant managers at a Canon open house.
