Xerox Corp.

The National Government Publishing Association's recent conference gave attendees a chance to witness the recovery of New Orleans.

Forty-four in-plant managers from 24 universities got together in Rochester, N.Y., last month for a Xerox-sponsored Higher Education Thought Leadership Workshop.

The National Government Publishing Association's recent conference gave attendees a chance to witness the recovery of New Orleans.

Larger than expected crowds converged on the AIIM/On Demand Show last month in Philadelphia, despite a drop in vendors from last year.

IT'S CONFERENCE season again, which means that in between writing and editing articles for this issue, I've been dashing off to in-plant events around the country. In the past two weeks I've been to two in-plant meetings (plus the On Demand Show) and talked with dozens of managers about what's happening in their shops.

AT AGE 13, Jim Sabulski was already looking for a job. “I set out to work because I liked being able to buy what I wanted,” declares Sabulski, now manager of Print and Mail Services for Misericordia University, in Dallas, Pa. “I didn’t like having to ask my parents for money.”

It's every in-plant manager's worse fear. You put in a request for new equipment, then find out your upper management is planning to outsource you. That was the situation Mike Schrader found himself in two years ago. His in-plant at Mercury Marine, a leading manufacturer of recreational marine propulsion engines, had just completed a request for proposal (RFP) to upgrade its digital equipment.

After its cancellation last year due to low registration numbers, the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) conference was back with a vengeance this year. Attendees this year hailed from as far away as Australia, New Zealand and Scotland, and included managers from all over the U.S., from Oregon to New Hampshire, with a large contingent from Texas.

WHEN MARK Dixon inherited the lead role at the University of Oregon's Printing and Mailing Services in December from long-time Director J.R. Gaddis, he started by taking a back-to-basics approach and stamping it with his own progressive twist.

Though the number of exhibitors was noticeably smaller than last year, the AIIM/On Demand Show attracted larger than expected crowds to Philadelphia this week. Among the visitors were a number of in-plants. IPG ran into at least 20 managers on the show's first two days, mostly from Pennsylvania universities, but a few from farther afield.