Offset & Beyond Looks At Future of Industry

ORLANDO—Cloud computing, QR codes, augmented reality, mobile messaging. These were just some of the emerging technologies addressed during the Printing Industries of America 2011 Offset & Beyond and Binding Industries Association (BIA) combined annual conferences held here May 23-25. Those topics joined more traditional sessions focused on pressroom waste reduction, UV printing and sales compensation plans, among others.

Michael Graff, president and CEO of Sandy Alexander, delivered a thoughtful, opening keynote address to the approximately 360 conference attendees. He addressed problems that the printing industry brought on itself in the past, but remains bullish about the outlook for those shops that can evolve with technology and client needs.

Graff's speech was followed by the presentation of this year's Harry V. Quadracci VISION Award to Robert Murphy, chairman of Japs-Olson Co., and the 2011 BIA Hall of Fame inductions of Jim Decker, The John Christian Co.; Jack Rikard, Rikard Bindery; and Bill Seidl, Seidl's Bindery. Also, John Gaspari, of Specialty Print Communications, was named the H. Howard Flint II Pressroom Operations Manager of the Year.

Additional keynotes featured Jim Sampey, COO of Cox Target Media/Valpak Direct Marketing Systems; Jamie Olson, brand manager at Wyndham Vacation Ownership; and Hilary Strauss Hahn, managing director of global marketing for xpedx national accounts.

New this year were optional plant tours the day after the conference ended to SunDance Marketing Solutions or Valpak's manufacturing center. A silent auction to raise money for the Printing Industries of America PrintPAC political action committee also debuted.