Australia and New Zealand

In Australia and Canada, in-plant associations are hard at work educating their members and giving them the tools they need to thrive. By Bob Neubauer In-plants are certainly not just a U.S. phenomenon. Though the International Publishing Management Association (meeting this month in suburban Chicago) and the Association of College and University Printers (story on page 14) are probably the world's most successful in-plant groups, other country's in-plants have also formed associations. Two of these groups are NIPPA, (the National In-plant Print & Publishing Association), which draws members from Australia and New Zealand, and CUPMAC (the College and University Print Management Association of

Australian in-plant managers joined with quick printers for the first conference of its kind in Australia. Some things are the same everywhere. One can travel halfway around the world, for example, and still hear about the importance of good service and good communication in a printing operation. Those two themes popped up repeatedly at Pacific Print Congress 98, held recently in Melbourne, Australia. Speakers, both American and Australian, stressed that, in a sea of competition, customers are looking for vendors they can trust; vendors who will go that extra step for them. "Become consultants to these people, not just order takers,"