Some Spooky Thoughts on Training
Training your employees and having them leave your company is a pretty scary thought… But, not training your employees and having them stay with your company is much, much scarier!!! Don’t make 2012 a spooky year for your company; be sure your staff is well-trained. Check out all of the workshops Printing Industries of America has lined up for the upcoming year at...
read moreBecome a Printing Industries of America Ambassador!
If you’ve been browsing printing.org lately, you may have seen a button asking to “Become an Ambassador for Printing Industries of America.” By signing up to become an ambassador, you’ll receive email notifications when there’s a new blog post or important news. Then, from that email you can choose to share our information on your social channels. It’s a neat innovation in the social media realm and makes sharing content as simple as clicking a button! We’re just testing out this application, so if you have any questions or comments don’t hesitate to add a comment on this post. We deal with a lot of interesting topics in the printing industry and this is just another tool to spread our message and keep printers...
read moreInterview with the Author of Sustainability Studies in Print
Since Sustainability Studies in Print: Five Printers Discuss Their Journeys to SGP Certification, is the book of the month, we interviewed the author, Joe Deemer, about the content of the books and some of the methodology behind it. What level of understanding/commitment is Sustainability Studies in Print aimed toward? Is it for someone curious about embracing bits and pieces of sustainability? Or someone who wants to go all the way toward SGP Certification? On its most basic level, Sustainability Studies in Print is aimed at the curious with the hopes that they will be inspired to follow in the footsteps of Alcom, Global Packaging, Monroe Litho, SunDance Marketing Solutions, and T-Formation. If a printer reads this book and decides to pursue certification with the Sustainable Green Printing (SGP) Partnership, then that’s a great thing. Certainly, many companies decide to make “green” claims in terms of promotion, and an SGP certification adds a solid level of credibility to such claims. But just like the whole “all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares” notion, you don’t need to be SGP-certified to actually be a sustainable printer. So, if a printer reads this book and decides to simply employ a more aggressive recycling program or maybe try out more eco-friendly materials because of the contents of Sustainability Studies in Print, I would still be thrilled with that result—and hopefully that hypothetical printer will be as well. What are some of the common pitfalls that the printers in Sustainability Studies in Print stumbled upon? At some point nearly all of the printers mentioned that they were unsure of how to proceed in the face of the documentation and criteria supplied by the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership. Many of these issues, on their surface, were purely semantic, but in some cases, a slight miscommunication can have time-consuming ramifications in future. It’s important to note that continuous improvement is one of the main tenets of SGP certification, and that the SGP Partnership holds itself to the same high standards it asks of applicants. So, with that in mind—and taking the concerns of early adopters into consideration—at the beginning of 2011, the SGP rewrote and clarified its certification criteria. The newly adopted criteria can be found in the first appendix of Sustainability Studies in Print. What was main difference between the five printers? What is so unique about their journeys? The main differences between the printers are the primary processes they use. Our membership is mainly lithographers, and three litho printers are featured here, including sheetfed and web as well as integration with digital presses. There is also a flexo printer and a screen printer. The main idea here was to show that these principles are not just limited to your traditional litho printers in addition to showing that some of the most effective sustainability techniques employed by, say, the screen printer, could just as easily be used in any sheetfed litho operation. In this manner, I believe the book shows that even across widely varied processes, some basic tried-and-true sustainability applications will almost always yield favorable results. At the same time, each printer does share some process-specific stories that will appeal to readers sharing their particular niche. Are the printers in this book still maintaining the SGP required levels of...
read moreVideo: Recap of GRAPH EXPO
GRAPH EXPO may be over, but that doesn’t have to stop you from reliving the show through the eyes of Printing Industries of America! I’m very pleased to present our “GRAPH EXPO Recap Video.” We’ve somehow crammed four days of GRAPH EXPO into a video that spans a mere one minute and thirty-three seconds. Highlights of the video include the Premier Print Awards & InterTech Awards Gala, backstage with Michael Makin, and so much more. Enjoy the video and stay tuned for more GRAPH EXPO content in the...
read moreHow Social Media is Like Building a House
Bernard Martin, a speaker at the upcoming Integrated Print Forum, talked to me for a bit about how getting started in social media is like building a house. Trust me, it makes much more sense when you listen to the Audioboo. Bernard Martin, a speaker at the Integrated Print Forum, gives some LinkedIn and social media pointers. (mp3) If you’re looking for more social media resources, Bernard has an extensive social media FAQ available for free. It’s great to see more and more printers embracing these tools and we are always looking for stories about how social media has expanded business or found printers opportunities. If you have a social media story, share it in the...
read moreOptimizing Color from your Digital Press – Workshop Retrospect and Highlights
Last week, Printing Industries of America presented the Optimizing Color from your Digital Press workshop to a sold-out audience. The workshop—which focuses on what it takes to produce reliable, high-quality digital output on digital presses—was the perfect blend of classroom instruction with hands-on learning in our production laboratories. Dave Dezzutti and Greg Radencic, co-workshop leaders, both concur on the success of the program. Dezzutti said, “The attendees were extremely pleased with the content and techniques presented, and were able to take what they learned back to their own facility and implement them right away.” The overall workshop score of 4.7 out of a possible 5 also points to the success of the program, as well as the satisfaction of the attendees. As one attendee states, “beautiful facility…enjoyed myself and would definitely come back for more training…” This popular workshop will be offered again in May 2012 (exact dates TBD)…watch for it on www.printing.org/training. You’ll want to register early as there are a limited number of seats for this...
read moreQ&A with Rick Gardiner about Embracing Change Part One
Rick Gardiner will be presenting, Digital Acument: How to Hire the Staff of Tomorrow, Today!, at the Integrated Print Forum in Pittsburgh this October 24-25. Rick took the time to talk with me about how Brunner has adapted to change and how this all relates to the printing industry. How has Brunner evolved to be who they are today? Our agency was founded over 20 years ago and our focus initially was print design and production. In the early 90’s, as the company started to become known for other services, like creative, some thought the ownership was crazy for getting into services like database marketing. Decisions like that went completely against the grain from what other agencies were doing. Then we acquired an early iteration of an Internet marketing company. So, I don’t know if, at the time, they knew how visionary it was. But they always believed in having technology at the core. There are pundits that believe it’s not about technology, but printers love technology and the iterations they make revolve around technology. What do you have to say about that? It’s the marriage of both. If you make decisions only about technology and not about ideas or creativity, then that’s not going to cut it. But if you can successfully combine both, you’ll find some success. That’s what worked for us. There are some downsides, too—having to invest earlier than your clients or customers are ready in order to stay ahead of the curve. Obviously, there’s a cost implication of staying the course. I remember I was here during the dotcom bust in 1999 and 2000 and we at Brunner were talking about how committed we should stay to this “Internet” thing. Michael Brunner said, “You know what? It’s not going away and it’s a blip. We’re going to stay the course.” Turned out to be a great decision. That’s great, that’s visionary stuff. That was a weird time for printers since we were just hearing about Web-to-print. Printers hated the business model of only taking a percentage of the sale because no one was self-hosting. The printers that stayed the course then were Vista Print and Mimeo.com, the ones that are big and strong now. I think now there’s a similar message to those guys. Even though we started out as a print focused business (print-design and print-production) we were always positioned as an agency, but there are a lot of parallels. There are a lot of agencies going out of business who can’t keep up with the times, which results in consolidation in the industry. While there are some agencies that have turned the corner and are successful and thriving, there are just as many who are struggling because that pace of change is so rapid. If you try to get on now, it’s pretty tough—unless you’re ready to make a big commitment. How would you get a printer to make that leap now? From a knowledge standpoint you can get up to speed fairly quickly. If you think about mobile marketing, two years ago it was all about iPhones, but today it’s all about Droids. Droids are engulfing the Apple market. Apple is a major player, but we’re looking to bring people on with Android skills, and they didn’t exist a year and a...
read moreWhat is Printing Industries of America Bringing to GRAPH EXPO?
Can you believe GRAPH EXPO is less than a week away? Look, they’re already setting up the show floor.As we ramp up for the conference, I’ll do my best to highlight some of what Printing Industries of America is bringing to the show. In this Audioboo, Mark Bohan talks with me about the seminars our staff is putting on at the show as well at the InterTech Gala. Enjoy! Talking with @markbohan about his @Graph_Expo plans....
read moreNew Tactic–Offer for a Google Tablet & Software
Remember when you would receive $50 for listening to a vacation timeshare pitch? Later it became a vacation club pitch? Remember when the $50 soared to $100? Well now the approach is changing. First of all, I received the pitch through the mail. This I loved since at least a stamp was involved and the USPS would earn a few cents toward their financial woes (another story!). OK, so here is the pitch: I am being offered a Google Tablet with the Android Software AND $100 restaurant gift card if I meet certain qualifications AND attend a 1.5 hour program being held locally. Of course I have only 72 hours to respond….starting when? I can’t tell. Anyway, as mentioned above, the giveaway is for sitting through a vacation club pitch and meeting certain qualifications; in other words, so I could actually pay for the offer. Lastly, on the return address, Google’s name is placed on the corner–as if the offer is from Google. Get this—even says “verification of delivery information required..” Do you think Google would be proud of its brand being used this way? Would I like a free Google Tablet? Sure. Will I go for the pitch? What do you...
read moreWords “Tweet” & “Crowdsourcing” make the Webster Dictionary in 2012!
I love to watch for the new entries in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. It usually reminds me of my cultural awareness (or lack of awareness). Of the nine new words added, only one was unfamiliar—parkour which “is the sport of traversing environmental obstacles by running, climbing or leaping rapidly and efficiently.” (My kids were doing that decades ago but I thought it was just playing outside.) Now I know! The other words were: boomerang child, bromance, crowdsourcing, fist bump, helicopter parent robocall and tweet. See the full article...
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