British In-plants Storm the 'Castle'
This week in Cheshire, England, dozens of higher-ed in-plants from all over the U.K. met for the 2025 Association of Creative and Print Managers in Education (ACPME) Annual Conference.
ACPME 2025 attendees pose inside historic Crewe Hall.
With the tagline “Influencing for Success,” the event took place in historic Crewe Hall, built in 1615–36. In keeping with the setting, attendees enjoyed a Medieval Renaissance-themed dinner, with many dressing in period costumes.
The conference offered plenty of networking opportunities for the 41 delegates attending from 22 institutions. A suppliers exhibition gave attendees a chance to see some of the latest technologies available to them.
ACUP+ President Tammy Elliott and ACPME Chair Michelle Barraclough.
On Monday morning, ACPME Chair Michelle Barraclough welcomed attendees, who included ACUP+ President Tammy Elliott, director of Print Services at The University of the South. Elliott gave a presentation on the U.S. higher-ed in-plant community and on the recent Association of College and University Printers conference.
The opening keynote speaker Duncan Stevens gave an entertaining talk on "The Magic of Influence and Persuasion: Turning More Maybes into Yesses." Then after time at the exhibition and lunch, a series of 10-minute talks let sponsors like Konica Minolta, Antalis UK, Canon, Duplo, and Xerox communicate their messages to attendees.
The suppliers exhibition at ACPME 2025
Among the speakers were Loughborough University’s Helen Clarke, who offered highlights from a benchmarking survey, and Ollie Renshaw of Leeds University, who gave a demonstration of the group’s new online forum. Other sessions covered topics like creating social media campaigns and successfully integrating marketing, creative and print. Several sessions titled "My One Big Thing" let managers highlight successes they have had in their operations.
ACPME Awards were presented to the following in-plants:
- Best innovative use of print: University of Glasgow
- Best innovative use of wide format: Loughborough University
- Best in-house digital design: Loughborough University
- Creative campaign of the year: Heart of Yorkshire Education Group
- ACPME Service of the Year (Total staff 1 to 5 FTE): Sheffield Hallam University
- ACPME Service of the Year (Total staff 6+ FTE): University of Derby
- Team member of the year: Natassja Drobinski, University of Sheffield
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
