Eastman Kodak Co.

Dozens of government and higher-ed printers met in Washington, D.C., for the INTERQUEST Digital Printing in Government and Higher Education Forum.

"There is a drum beat in Congress to cut printing," declared U.S. Public Printer Bill Boarman on Wednesday, speaking to a crowd of about 80 government and higher-ed printers, consultants and vendors. He was addressing the INTERQUEST Digital Printing in Government and Higher Education Forum in Washington, D.C. His task, he stressed, as leader of the Government Printing Office, is not to preserve printing at all costs, but to make sure reductions are done in a way that doesn't hurt the legislative process.

In-plant managers at government agencies and higher-ed institutions now have another reason to attend the INTERQUEST Digital Printing in Government and Higher Education Forum in Washington, D.C. 12 days from today. Both the current and previous U.S. Public Printers will be speakers at the event.

When SUPDMC attendees weren't networking or attending sessions, they were visiting Vanderbilt University's impressive in-plant.

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.

Vendors reported a good amount of interest in bindery equipment at this year's GRAPH EXPO in Chicago. The bindery equipment at the show offered in-plants some great opportunities to expand their services and increase their efficiency.

IN A CLASSIC "Peanuts" comic strip, Schroeder confronts Charlie Brown with scores of numbers to illustrate the ineptitude of their eternally winless baseball team. He builds quite a case, and when he finally finishes recounting the team's blundering exploits, Charlie Brown offers a curt reply.

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 just a two-color offset press and a Xerox DocuColor 2045 for producing color work, University of Regina Printing Services was outsourcing a lot of jobs. But after installing a Kodak NexPress 2500 SE digital press, the in-plant started printing that work in-house.

JUDGING BY the number of in-plant managers walking the Graph Expo show floor last month, there are quite a few in-plants itching to leave the recession behind and get busy adding equipment. The show gave them plenty to ogle, too, particularly in the inkjet arena.