The recent Association of College and University Printers conference may have taken place in sunny Phoenix, Ariz., but it was no vacation. The 82 managers who traveled there from all over the world came for answers and advice on how to keep their in-plants thriving in these trying times. The three days of intensive educational sessions did not disappoint them.
Mark McCarty
I'm on a plane as I write this, flying home from Rochester, N.Y., after attending and presenting at a Xerox Thought Leadership Workshop. Xerox holds these events periodically, bringing a couple dozen in-plant managers together for two days of tours, presentations and networking at its Gil Hatch Center for Customer Innovation.
After seven years of service, the Epson 10000 at Missouri State University was fading fast. When it reached the point where it would run for only an hour a day, Mark McCarty had enough. Despite the budget crunch, the Printing Services manager was able to get approval for a new Epson Stylus Pro 9900 so the Springfield, Mo., in-plant could once again offer accurate color proofs. The 44?-wide ink-jet printer arrived in February.
In-plants that have installed wide-format ink-jet printers are finding many unique and unexpected uses for the devices. By Carol Brzozowski It was an odd request. A young man walked into the printing department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and asked the shop to print a life-size picture of himself, mount it on foam board and cut it out so it would stand by itself. Why? He planned to give it to his girlfriend as a summer break gift. "It was more of a reminder of him as much as it was a deterrent to any other boys, but it was funny,"
Thinking about getting a wide-format ink-jet printer? Worried it won't draw enough business? Find out how other managers did it. Have you considered buying a wide-format ink-jet printer for your in-plant, but worried that you wouldn't attract enough business to justify it? Or perhaps you have one but it's just not getting used often enough. Well fear not. IPG talked to managers from around the country to find out how they market their capabilities to their customers. And for several managers, these devices have almost sold themselves. "We actually sold several jobs off of it before we got the machine here, so we were