Michael Kalstein

For the second year in a row, the California Polytechnic State University hosted “The Business of Green Media” sustainability conference. Held in January in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and produced by SustainCommWorld, the conference drew enthusiastic responses from attendees, who hailed from 17 states and 55 organizations, including several in-plants. “No printing process is exempt from the governmental requirements and social responsibility of developing sustainable practices,” remarked Harvey Levenson, head of Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department.

HOLDING AN open house is a great way for your in-plant to promote its capabilities and generate new business. All it takes is a little planning. To help you and give you some ideas, we spoke with three California in-plants that have held open houses. San Diego State University (SDSU), California State Polytechnic University-Pomona and California State University-Sacramento built on each others’ experiences to make their events even more successful. In all three cases, open houses were organized around the acquisition of new digital printing equipment. Leslie Rutledge, manager of ReproGraphic Services at SDSU, was the first of the three to take the plunge.

The print shop dynamic is generally driven by the conflicting demands of cost, speed and quality. Today's copiers and digital printers are the kings of speed, for example, yet the payment plans imposed by manufacturers might drive the cost so high on large jobs that printers must turn elsewhere. That's where offset presses still shine. Despite all the hype from printer and copier manufacturers, offset presses still provide benefits that can't be