NAPL

Printers Attend Lenticular Seminar Williston, VT—KBA North America recently offered a comprehensive five-day seminar on lenticular printing. The professional development seminar, held at KBA’s headquarters here, brought together KBA’s lenticular, printing and marketing experts with owners and press operators of the KBA Genius 52 UV press. Lenticular printing is a special technique that involves printing an image on the back side of lenticular plastic, allowing the eye to simultaneously view alternating sections of multiple images to give the impression of 3-D, flip, or motion. KBA reports it is planning several repeat seminars this year. Graphic Systems Group in New York City announced the appointment

WASHINGTON, DC—January 24, 2007—The Print Council, a national business development initiative dedicated to promoting the greater use of printing and print media, today announced that the Jacob North Companies and The John Roberts Company have joined the growing membership of the organization. As new members of the Council, these respected printers will be working with other companies to increase the market for printed materials. Ben Cooper, Executive Director of The Print Council, commented, “We are pleased that Jacob North Companies and John Roberts Company have elected to become part of our important industry effort to promote the value of print to the nation’s

PARAMUS, NJ—1/11/2007—NAPL (www.napl.org), the trade association for excellence in graphic communications management, has selected 17 graphic communications companies to receive its 2006 Management Plus Awards, which recognize management excellence in all phases of operation. The highest Management Plus honor, the William K. Marrinan Hall of Fame Award, is bestowed on Bloomington Offset Process, Inc., a full-service printing, mailing, and fulfillment company based in Bloomington, Ill. (See NAPL January 11, 2007, press release, “2006 NAPL Management Plus Hall of Fame Award Goes to Bloomington Offset Process, Inc.”) Three companies earned Management Plus Gold Awards, 10 received Silver Awards, and two were named Merit Award

I GUESS you all saw that Mister Hot Shot George Clooney won People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive!” competition.

This is twice for Clooney.

Brad Pitt won twice.

Last year I called People magazine to inquire about my ranking in the competition. I wasn’t even in their database.

This year I called People again and inquired about my standing in the ranking. A kind and very patient researcher performed an in-depth search while I held on the phone. No luck.

I suggested that just maybe she would find me in the “M’s” as the “Mañana Man.” Yep. She found me. The People researcher said I was in the Hispanic Sexy

Printers Weigh Straight Presses vs. Long Perfectors KENNESAW, GA—More than 50 printers from around the U.S. attended a Heidelberg VIP Event December 5-6 at its Print Media Demonstration Center to see live demos comparing high-speed straight printing vs. long perfecting sheetfed offset presses. The event served as a follow-up to a panel discussion on the topic hosted by Heidelberg during Graph Expo. Following a brief presentation explaining how the job was prepared using Heidelberg’s JDF-based Prinect Printready System 3.0, the same job was run in the demo center on a six-color Speed- master XL 105 with coater in two passes and on a 10-color Speedmaster

RESTON, VA—December 18, 2006—NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies will conduct a series of Regional Roadshows in the Chicago, New York/New Jersey, New England, and Ohio regions. Running from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the meetings will provide in-depth vendor-customer dialogue, a spotlight on selling strategies for the vendor community, valuable market data, and networking opportunities. “Our Regional Roadshow series was conceived as a convenient way to deliver robust, relevant content to our member companies close to their own offices,” says Ralph Nappi, NPES President. “By spending part of their work day with us at a nearby venue, they can launch

RESTON, VA—12/13/06—The Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association (MFSA) will stage its annual Leaders Conference in conjunction with the biggest graphic communications, converting and package printing trade shows of the year, GRAPH EXPO® and PackPrint, co-located at the McCormick Place Complex on September 9-12, 2007, bringing to Chicago more than 100 of the most influential leaders of the mailing and fulfillment business. GRAPH EXPO, the largest graphic communications event in the Americas, has steadily expanded its coverage of this important market segment in recent years, and GASC expects the Mailing & Fulfillment Center at this year’s show to be the biggest yet.  The Center, dedicated to

IT’S ELECTION Day evening. I’m sitting here trying to get inspired to write my 244th column and my 24th Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Holiday column.

There. I’ve gotten the political correctness thing behind me. But my depression lingers. I’m not depressed by the election outcome. We all knew long before now what the results would be.

I’m depressed at being inundated for months by all the phone calls, the multitude of negative television commercials, the handful of positive TV commercials and all of the road signs stretching around highways of America.

I want all that stuff banned and the political money in future elections redirected to the printing

THERE’LL BE a slight hissing noise behind the strains of Auld Lang Syne at New Year’s Eve celebrations this year. It’s the sound of some steam going out of the economy. The slowdown in GDP growth isn’t expected to turn into a recession, but it will have an impact on printing industry sales growth. The one standout will be growth in digital printing. While it continues to use the Blue Chip Economic Indicator Consensus in its forecasting, NAPL’s Printing Economic Research Center (PERC) is now making that number the upper bound of its economic outlook range, reports Joseph Vincenzino, senior economist. PERC’s analysis had

Bobst Providing Bindery Direction ROSELAND, NJ—Intrigued by barbecues under the stars, a car show and rally—and yes, let’s not forget binding and finishing gear—roughly 450 people from 171 different plants made their way here for the Direction ’06 Open House sponsored by Bobst Group USA. The show, held September 21-26 at Bobst’s Demonstration and Training Center, showcased the company’s folding carton and commercial printing solutions for customers and prospects alike. A total of nine Bobst technologies were on display. On the commercial printing end, diecutters such as the SPanthera 106-LER, SPeria 106-E and the SPrintera 145-PER drew attention from visitors, along with the SPeria Foilmaster 102. Jerry