Another Successful IPMA Conference Comes to a Close
The largest in-plant event of the year wrapped up Wednesday in San Mateo, Calif. About 135 in-plant managers gathered in this San Francisco suburb for the annual In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference.
From Sunday evening's opening reception to the awards banquet Wednesday night, managers were constantly busy, reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, attending numerous excellent sessions and visiting vendors in the exhibit area. A wonderful dinner boat cruise in the San Francisco Bay provided breathtaking vistas and great opportunities for managers to socialize and get to know one another.
"It is always interesting to talk with fellow managers and come away with new and different approaches to solving common issues," commented IPMA President Rob Lingard, director of Central Services for Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators, in Salt Lake City.
Monday morning started with management expert Barry Maher offering some real-world tactics for increasing productivity and job satisfaction. The lesson: great leadership is about showing your employees there is more to them than they know, so they won't settle for less. Build people up—and not just when you're about to knock them down with criticism.
Other keynoters included Barb Pellow, of InfoTrends, who once again opened managers' eyes with her emphasis on the importance of making print and mobile technologies work together, and NAPL consultant Howie Fenton, who offered a wealth of practical information for in-plants on how to better benchmark their operations and show that printing is their core competency.
The roster of excellent presentations included Sally Roberts detailing how her in-plant at the University of West Georgia turned itself around; the three managers from The World Bank discussing their recent installation of an inkjet press (IPG's June cover story); Debbie Pavletich from Briggs & Stratton offering money-saving suggestions that her in-plant has implemented; Steve Nelles, with the County of Ventura, detailing how he has successfully replaced some print products with digital services; and many more.
Read IPG's full report in the July issue. Here are some links to photos from the conference: