From the Editor: Expo Draws In-plant Community Together
The in-plant community showed up in force to PRINTING United Expo in October. I could hardly walk across the show floor without a manager calling my name and stopping for a chat. I spotted them checking out equipment at booths and assembling at various in-plant-focused events. It was great seeing so many in-plants in one place.
The team at Seminole County Public Schools.
My week in Orlando started with visits to two local in-plants. I ventured up to Sanford to tour Seminole County Public Schools Print Solutions, where Christina McDonald proudly showed off her shop’s new bindery equipment. We talked about wide-format installations the in-plant has done, such as one weekend makeover her staff gave to a school’s walls, earning high praise for the shop.
Visiting Orange County Public Schools' in-plant.
I also swung by Orange County Public Schools to talk with Sarah Vickers and her team about how they are bringing more wide-format printing in-house while moving into apparel decorating and producing unique applications, like awards.
At the Expo, I ran an In-plant Forum that brought about 50 in-plant managers together from the likes of Apple, Lockheed Martin, Salt River Project, The World Bank, and numerous educational and government operations. My colleague Kalie VanDewater and I presented data from recent in-plant surveys covering new services, tariffs, staffing shortages, and artificial intelligence.
Then I moderated a discussion with attendees during which they shared ways they are using AI; successful services they have added like apparel and graphics installation; how tariffs and labor shortages are impacting them; and ways they are promoting their services. It was a great forum and gave managers an opportunity to make new contacts.
Bob Neubauer (right) moderating a discussion during the 2025 In-plant Forum.
The In-plant Printing and Mailing Association hosted a similar networking breakfast for in-plants. Ricoh’s Debbie Pavletich presented strategies to help in-plants boost efficiency, cut costs, and expand services. An IPMA happy hour also gave managers a chance to shoot the breeze and share what they saw on the show floor.
Bob Neubauer talking with Kelly Hogg.
I talked in depth with several in-plant managers in a series of video interviews I conducted in the PRINTING United Alliance booth (watch them here):
- Marshall Gray told me how he expanded the University of Florida’s copy shop into a world-class, money-saving production operation.
- Larry Mills related how the wide-format and patient education materials his in-plant prints for Monument Health are improving the lives of patients and their families.
- Josh Carlson told me what it’s like running The Villages’ one-person print operation, which he built from the ground up.
- Bloomberg’s John Cruser noted that he was intrigued by the Expo’s vast display of promo items.
- Kelly Hogg told me about the University of Texas at Austin’s plans to relocate his large in-plant.
I also had a great discussion with three K-12 in-plant managers from different parts of the country and created a podcast from it (listen to it here). I talked with Christina McDonald, Print Manager, Seminole County Public Schools Print Solutions; Nikki Hiller, Administrator, Omaha Public Schools Printing, Publications & Mail; and Lee Christiansen, Manager, Hemet Unified School District Publication Center. We discussed production inkjet, wide-format projects, recent expansions, apparel printing, AI, Expo discoveries and more.
The equipment may have been the Expo’s chief draw, but for me, reconnecting with the in-plant community made it even more worthwhile.
In-plant managers at the In-plant Forum.
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 200 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.
