May 17th was Printing Industry Midwest Day at Printing Industries of America! To celebrate, the staff sported shirts with designs printed by our midwest members. We are proud of the variety and quality of shirts we received and are thankful to have such talented printers as members of the Printing Industries of America. To see more photos visit our Facebook...

Last week Printing Industries of America was honored to once again host a delegation of Japanese printing executives to our headquarters building.  During our visit, we exchanged information on our respective economies, outlooks for our industries and hopes for the future.  We naturally began our visit by expressing our deepest sympathies and concerns over the recent tragedy inJapan, extending our best wishes for a return to normalcy and health for all citizens of the country. Our Japanese friends painted a bleak picture of their industry which in many ways mirrored the conditions we have experienced during the recent recession.  They note that their industry peaked in 1997 due to a larger population, rapid economic growth and an increase in information circulation whereas it is now faltering because of an aging society and diversified media. In 2008 there noted a paradigm shift in their industry that they attribute to three things: the fall of Lehman Brothers; an initiative by their Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, which aims to cut down 25% of CO2 emissions; and the revolution of electronic devices like the iPad. Ink, paper, and printing industry shipments reached their lowest point in 2009, but they are bouncing back despite the low demand for print. By 2020 the Japanese hope to emerge a leaner industry. This will mean fewer overall printers doing more printing. While commercial and publication printing is wavering, packaging, specialized, and label printing will maintain a viable option for businesses going forward while software service will see growth.   The parallels to the American industry in this regard are startling. Like many printers in America are becoming “marketing service providers,” Japanese printers have taken notice and are shifting to becoming “solution providers” themselves although it is important to note that culturally the way goods are marketed in Japan are somewhat different than here in the U.S.  The view solution providers are printers who solve the problems clients and society have by using technology and knowledge.  Printers that adapt to new technology, offer a wide array of services, and diversify themselves will be the ones leading the industry in the future.  The same of course can be said here in theUnited States. Needless to say it was a fascinating exchange and we are grateful and honored to have hosted Kenichi Soma, Atsuyoshi Kimura, Masato Usuda, Hiroyuki Shimamura, and Chie Ohlsson to Pittsburgh. Our thoughts and prayers go out with them as they continue to deal with the tsunami aftermath. If you have any questions for our visitors, please leave a comment on this post. Once we have a few we’ll post another blog with a Q&A with a member of the All Japan Federation of Printing Industry Associations....

The long-held vision and dream to see three organizations come together to produce an industry wide event became a marvelous reality last month in Palm Desert, California, with the launch of the first Vision 3 Summit. The buzz in the dry desert air was palpable as printers and vendors assembled by the hundreds to share ideas and speculate on what the future holds for our great industry.  I could not be more thrilled with the success of the event and how wonderful the collaboration was between Printing Industries of America, NAPL, and NPES. The event kicked off with arguably the most unconventional economic forecast by Dr. Lowell Catlett from New Mexico State University.  Dr. Catlett combined home-spun charm and humor to reinforce just how strong the United States economy is and that the future is indeed bright.  Industry leader Mike Panaggio followed this theme and shared his business philosophy of focusing on talent to drive organizational success.  Mike is one of the most visionary entrepreneurs in our industry, and it was a privilege to have him share his strategic vision.  If this weren’t enough, he also designed personalized websites for all of the conference attendees, chalk full of business ideas and blueprints. The first day continued with an informative innovators panel featuring David Fox of Valpak, Chuck Gehman of Mimeo.com, and Andrew Field of Printingforless.com.  Lisbeth Lyons provided a fascinating look into the political scene as the keynote luncheon speaker and day one concluded with a motivational address by John Wright who challenged all to be winners instead of losers. If homespun charm was the theme of the first economist, then a dose of reality was the theme of the Summit’s second keynote address by Alan Beaulieu from the Institute for Trend Research.  Mr. Beaulieu explored the economies of most major industrialized nations and gave predictions on when the economy in North America would rise and fall.  Gina Testa from Xerox was next up and facilitated one of the best marketing panels I have ever seen featuring graphic communications execs with their customers.  It was amazing.  Tuesday’s luncheon speaker was Chris Morgan, HP’s Senior Vice President of Graphics Solutions, who explored how the changing digital landscape is affecting the future of print. On day three I was honored to open the conference by facilitating a pacesetters panel featuring Craig Faust from Quad/Graphics, Bill Gilmer of Wordsprint, and Scott Vaughn from the Standard Group.  All three discussed how they are transforming their businesses by diversifying their offerings and working more strategically with clients.  The conference concluded with economist No.3—the ever entertaining and insightful Andy Paparozzi from NAPL who summarized all of the conference presentations with a cogent blueprint for printers...

Can you believe the Vision 3 Summit is only three weeks away? It doesn’t seem like so long ago that we sat down with NAPL and NPES to plan a groundbreaking new leadership conference to help invigorate our industry. The reason the three associations have come together to form the Vision 3 Summit is indicative of what our industry must do to survive—work with one another to share ideas so we can provide consumers with new and innovative products and services. To facilitate this, we’ve put together a conference to prepare industry leaders for the future as well as offer panels filled with innovators in the field. For instance, the aptly named Innovators Panel gathers some of the visionaries in the field to share their inspiration and advice with you. You’ll get to hear David Fox, Vice President, Manufacturing, Valpak®; Chuck Gehman, Vice President, Product Management, Mimeo.com; and Andrew Field, President and CEO, PrintingForLess.com (PFL) discuss their business models and solutions. The Pacesetters Panel—Leading the Industry by Example gathers Craig Faust, President and CEO, HGI Company; Bill Gilmer, President and Owner, Wordsprint; and Scott Vaughn, CEO of The Standard Group, to talk about the different paths of success they’ve followed to get to where they are today. Those are just two of the many sessions we’ve put together. Whether you’re looking to expand into vertical markets, plan for the future, embrace social media, or figuring out new ways to grow, the Vision 3 Summit has you covered. We’re all very proud of the program, and we know those who attend will come away with solutions and the drive needed to push their company forward into the “new world” of print. For a more in-depth sampling of content showcased at the conference, visit the YouTube page, follow the conference on Twitter and Facebook, or read blog post from speakers at Printing Impressions. Additionally, Vision3summit.org has a summary of every session at the...

Welcome to Printing Industries of America’s blog! We know it’s important as ever to engage with our members and provide them with the resources and information they need to succeed in this industry, and this blog will go a long way toward achieving those goals. This blog will feature posts written by our experienced staff on a variety of topics. You can look forward to reading about becoming a more efficient printer, green printing, how politics can impact printing, digital printing, cross-media marketing, and so much more. Additionally, this blog will let you get to know more about Printing Industries of America. Have you ever wondered how we develop a conference? Or what becomes of the recipients of our awards, like the Premier Print Awards Best of Show? Well, this blog is a platform where we can share some of this information and better showcase the videos and audio recordings we produce. The Printing Industries of America blog will open a doorway to building a community where printers can come to share ideas, resources, and find useful nuggets of information. You can look forward to updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Be sure to bookmark this page and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We’re really excited to be able to produce this blog, and we hope you’ll help it grow by actively participating on blog...