Offset and Beyond — Training Ground For the Winners

WITH THE 2008 election cycle in full throttle, the operative word is change. . .as usual. The printing industry is not immune to the calls for change. Our history demonstrates our mastery of change. With the ripple effects of the housing mortgage meltdown, energy prices spiraling out of sight, healthcare costs rising and the drumbeat of a recession, do we have a choice but to change? No. But what we change will separate the printing companies as leaders or laggards.

Actions we continue will be as important as actions we start or stop. In every downturn, whether it is an official recession or not, winners emerge. Winners don’t lay low or “wait and see.” Winners act!

As the dedicated printers and suppliers of the Web Offset Association (WOA), we recognize the gamut of tactics that your company needs to focus upon. Offset and Beyond 2008 is a lens on the critical issues with proven techniques to drive your company to be a winner. It is a lens to focus on the future, a lens to focus on the profitability map and a lens to action. Winners focus on people; this conference is about people—people in your company who will drive profits, cement customer relationships and become your first line of defense to master operating excellence.

Offset and Beyond 2008 is the second year of a partnership formed with WOA and PIA/GATF to offer a one-stop conference for both web and sheetfed offset printers. This conference is our place to form a community, our place to answer questions about the business of printing. 2008 will build on the success and feedback of 2007.

Our common foundation is offset lithography and the “beyond” acknowledges that the offset community is wider and broader than offset lithography and includes digital printing, green issues and much more. It’s about the business of printing. It’s about the business of people in printing!

WOA leaders along with our sheetfed advisors have devoted entire tracks to the technology of the processes with a web technology track and a sheetfed technology track. We offer a full gamut of sessions in the management and combination tracks for a total of four tracks. New suggested features are implemented each year such as a Saturday start, a concentrated all-day session on fulfillment, a Green Printers Showcase and a student outreach program.

The foundation of the meeting remains. There are newsmaker speakers such as James Bradley (author of “Flags of Our Father”) and David Gregory (MSNBC White House correspondent); industry notables such as Jim Andersen, president and CEO of IWCO; Ken Field from Continental Web and winner of the Harry V. Quadracci Vision Award; panelists representing the best practices in successful printing companies; and real-world talk and solutions about everyday problems.

The 35 topics and numerous sessions form the backdrop for you and your team to develop a lifetime of industry friends and colleagues to help you on your road to success. Supplier sponsors partner with printers to bring the best information for and about successful printing practices.

And, you can customize your schedule to meet your individual and company needs and interests.

Downturns? Maybe. Recession? Possibly. These questions are interesting, but it really doesn’t matter. As printers, we need to ask: What are we doing to prepare our people to outperform the competition? What are we doing right and should continue? What practices should we stop? What new directions should we begin? What trends are likely to affect us? What actions should we take? What changes in the economy can we capitalize upon?

These are the questions of winners. Offset and Beyond 2008 is the training ground for the winners!

Please join us.

Offset and Beyond 2008 will launch on April 26-29 in Schaumburg, IL. For more information, contact Justin Goldstein at jgoldstein@piagatf.org. PI

About the Author
Ralph Pontillo serves as chairman of the board for the Web Offset Association and is vice president/general manager at Transcontinental Miami Valley, in Fairborn, OH.