In-plant Events

The Central Pennsylvania Chapter continues to attract new members to its meetings. “It seems if I keep them centralized in the Harrisburg area, most of the members that are within the local region are able to make it,” says Chapter President George Kaufman. He also adds that members are very dedicated to the chapter and enjoy each others’ company.

ANY TIME in-plant managers get together, the conversation and camaraderie never end. This was particularly true at the recent Southeastern University Printing and Digital Managers Conference (SUPDMC). About 30 in-plant managers from universities all over the southern U.S. and as far away as the state of Washington got together in Nashville, Tenn., to exchange information and listen to presentations to help them tune up their operations.

SUPDMC was not the only event for in-plants last month. Just a week later, the 2011 SGIA Expo came to New Orleans, followed by the Texas Association of College and University Printers (TACUP) conference the following week in Fort Worth. SGIA brought 16,000 people to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to view the latest wide-format, screen and digital printing technologies.

For years, Southern in-plant managers have been inviting me to the Southeastern University Printing and Digital Managers Conference (SUPDMC). As the name implies, this is a group of in-plant managers who hail mostly from Southern states.

The strong turnout of in-plants at Graph Expo took me by surprise. With all the travel cutbacks of recent years, I thought we'd have trouble filling seats at the roundtable luncheon we hosted; we ended up with a packed room. I could hardly turn a corner at the show without bumping into an in-plant manager.

With excellent sessions and networking opportunities, plus a tour of an award-winning in-plant, ACUP 2011 had everything that college and university in-plant managers could have asked for.

The U.K.-based University Print Managers Group met recently in County Durham, bringing dozens of higher-ed in-plant managers together. One of the speakers was U.S. in-plant manager Catherine Chambers, from Virginia Tech, who gave a session called “Sustaining Operations in Turbulent Times” in which she described her use of metrics to track performance while turning around her in-plant.

There was an enthusiasm among attendees at the recent In-Plant Printing & Mailing Association conference that exceeded all previous years. IPG captured some of this excitement in a series of videos documenting the 52nd IPMA conference. The highlight is a short video that recaps the entire conference, with scenes from the social gatherings, sessions and vendor fair.

Jean-Luc Devis explains how Washington State's successful managed print program works and how it's saved millions for the state.

During a break between sessions at IPMA 2011, IPG's Bob Neubauer asked several managers what they have learned at this year's conference.