PRINTER news

VDP ‘Masters’ Mentor on Tricks Of Printing Trade

PHILADELPHIA—To help educate its clients (and prospective customers) with the latest trends in printing and variable data printing (VDP), Innovation Printing & Communications hosted a full day of seminars—billed as “The Masters of Printing and Variable Data”—in its new 67,000-square-foot facility on September 27. Innovation also invited representatives from Heidelberg, Adobe, Xerox, RIS Paper (Domtar Distribution Group), Clemson University and 23K Studios Inc. to participate in the event.

Innovation’s energetic staff gave tours of the new facility during the course of the day, while several leading experts discussed various topics, including: the benefits of VDP and direct marketing; the importance of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified papers; and tips, tricks and inside secrets of Adobe’s design software. Presentation tours on the Innovation press floor were given by James Martin, Heidelberg’s senior vice president of marketing, who also discussed the latest offset printing trends and technologies, and the ability of those technologies to ensure the highest levels of color consistency.

Attendees were also shown a complete job being produced on Innovation’s Xerox iGen3 digital press with a Darwin front end to create extremely personalized pieces.

The three owners of Innovation Printing & Communications, Jeff Jones, Dave Carpenter and George Slater, are excited about “the huge potential for growth” in the company’s digital print division, and plan to focus on personalized direct mail.

Lazer Inc., based in Rochester, NY, has announced the arrival of Roger Mabbett, who joined the company as director of business and technical development. Mabbett, a member of the RIT Industrial Advisory Board and past president of the Institute of Packaging Professionals, has more than two decades of experience in the printing and packaging industries.

The Printing Association of Florida (PAF) has named Barry Meinerth, senior vice president, production and fulfillment, Time Inc., as a recipient of its 2008 Graphic Arts Leaders of the Americas (GALA) Awards. Two awards, one for North and Latin America, are presented. Meinerth was selected to receive the North American award, which will be presented at the 25th annual GALA Award Banquet February 27 in conjunction with the Graphics of the Americas 2008 exhibition in Miami Beach.

ADAST announced that Tony Mosca, president of Northeast Commerical Printing in Albany, NY, won the “Outrun the Competition with Adast” contest, which took place during Graph Expo, held in Chicago in September. ADAST and its U.S. factory dealers sponsored the contest, in which Mosca’s name was chosen randomly from all who registered for the contest. Rather than take the $500 cash prize, Mosca opted for the 40cc pocket bike that is capable of speeds in excess of 40 mph.

The sole woman and only Long Islander appointed to serve on the Small Business Advisory Council of the New York Federal Reserve Bank is Sharon Newman, president of Action Envelope in Lindenhurst, NY. Newman—who took over Action Envelope in 1993 when her husband, the company’s founder, died unexpectedly—was selected to serve on the Council based on her role as a business leader in her community.

Jim Marcum, senior vice president of Omaha Print, Omaha, NE, recently retired after serving 50 years with the company in several capacities. Marcum was also named Nebraska Printer of the Year by the Printing Industries of the Midlands (PIM) in 1999. In other news, Charles Kinzer—a 21-year veteran with Omaha Print, who most recently served as executive vice president of sales and administration—has been appointed president and COO of the company.

The 2007 Advertising Production Person of the Year (APPY) Award recipient is Diane Romano, president and COO of HudsonYards, New York, whose clients include Martha Stewart Living, Newsweek, Hearst Magazines, JWT and Grey Worldwide. She was presented with her award at the 76th Annual APC Gala on September 27 at the Tribeca Rooftop in Manhattan.

Tamara Pope has been appointed director of marketing at Toronto, Canada-based Transcontinental Printing, marketing products and services sector. Pope, who brings more than 20 years of experience with her to Transcontinental, has worked in senior mangement positions with Xerox Corp. and Avenor Inc., Fine Paper Group.

Four newly elected printing industry executives have been named to the Digital Solutions Cooperative (Dscoop) board of directors: Boris Bel, director of services, Indigo division, HP Americas, Andover, MA; Susan Moore, president of Digital Printing & Imaging (DPI) of Kennesaw, GA; Christopher Petro, GlobalSoft Digital Solutions, Mahwah, NJ; and David Smith, senior manager of digital print and business development, Communicorp Inc., Columbus, GA.

The Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF) has added a free posting service for printing industry internships, available to all scholarship recipients. The PGSF Web service was created, implemented and donated by PrintWorkers.com, an Internet job board, as a way of introducing students to the printing industry while they’re still in school. Companies that want to post internships may do so by accessing the PGSF job bank at www.gain.net. PI