In-plants Gather in Sacramento for Final 2024 Road Show
More than a dozen in-plant managers from California, New Mexico, and Georgia met in Sacramento, California, recently for the final IPMA Road Show of the year. In-plant Impressions Editor Bob Neubauer attended and spoke at the event on the campus of California State University – Sacramento, which was bursting with autumn colors, though damp from a light rainfall.
At the Road Show (from left) Rob Newlin, the state of New Mexico’s director of Printing Services, sits with California State Printer Lou Butera and Brian Allen, also from the California Office of State Publishing.
One notable attendee was new California State Printer Lou Butera, who oversees the California Office of State Publishing. The state of New Mexico’s director of Printing Services, Rob Newlin, was also at the event, and the manager of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta’s in-plant, Jason Carne, made the cross-country journey to attend as well. California in-plants in attendance included American River College, University California San Francisco, California State University - Stanislaus, and Folsom Lake College.
IPI Editor Bob Neubauer gave a presentation recapping PRINTING United Expo.
Neubauer led off the full-day mini-conference with a review of PRINTING United Expo that featured photos and video of the trade show. Then Ricoh’s Mark Jorgensen talked about how in-plants should embrace technology and innovation. He focused on digital storefronts, stressing their convenience, how they help with brand control, and their analytics and reporting features. He also discussed the importance of marketing your in-plant and offered suggestions like conducting workshops to showcase capabilities; sharing cost savings the in-plant provides to the organization; meeting with departments to understand their needs; collecting feedback from users and using it to improve services; and creating a wall of samples to showcase the in-plant’s work.
Managers from Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta and American River College.
Lee Ann Raymond of edu Business Solutions continued the Web-to-print conversation by detailing how an online ordering system can help an in-plant get the coveted “right of first refusal” by making it easy for customers to send work to the in-plant and provide data tracking and reporting capabilities.
edu Business Systems' Mike Strand and Lee Ann Raymond talk about Web-to-print.
Then Matt Barry of Swagforce discussed the challenges in-plants face trying to sell promotional items, such as the need to recruit and train sales reps, providing quick turnaround on quotes, and navigating hundreds of suppliers and products. Swagforce, he said, can handle all of this for in-plants through a partnership with IPMA that gives members free use of its services. The company provides an ecommerce site, an account manager, marketing assistance, tracking of orders, and more.
Attendees have a discussion during the Road Show.
After lunch and the opportunity to talk with the vendors who had set up information tables, the group traveled across campus to visit University Print & Mail. Director Laura Lockett led a tour of her operation, which features a pair of Konica Minolta digital presses, a new Printware iJet 1175 inkjet envelope press, and a new Standard Horizon CF362 creaser folder. She and her staff gave demos of the various devices, inspiring questions from visiting in-plant managers.
The new Mimaki flatbed and Colex cutter at University Print & Mail.
The highlight, however, was the in-plant’s new “Wide-format Land” area: a former paper warehouse turned into a dedicated wide-format production area. The two newest devices are a Mimaki flatbed printer and a Colex cutter. A demo of the latter let visitors watch it cutting magnets from a large magnetic sheet. The shop also has a Direct Color Systems 1800z UV LED printer which it uses to create ADA-compliant signage and acrylic awards.
This was the final IPMA Road Show of 2024, but IPMA Executive Director Mike Loyd, who also attended the event, announced that the association plans to hold six Road Shows in 2025 in different locations around the country. These will be in addition to IPMA’s annual educational conference, taking place June 8-12 in Spokane, Washington.
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.
