In-Plants Meet At Messiah College

By Bob Neubauer

Last month, a dozen or so in-plant managers met on the central Pennsylvania campus of Messiah College for a day of networking and education. The meeting was part of the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association’s series of fall regional meetings taking place all over the country.

With autumn colors infusing the trees on campus, managers from Bucknell University, The Hershey Co., Villanova University, the PA Department of General Services, the University of Virginia and others got a warm welcome from Dwayne Magee, manager of Messiah College Press. He introduced keynote speaker Barbara Stainbrook, Konica Minolta’s senior vice president of Production Print, who gave a presentation detailing new services in-plants should consider offering to add more value.

“There are emerging technologies right in front of all of us today that we can utilize and take advantage of to help us grow our in-plants and help us provide more value back to our customers,” she noted.

One of those is multi-channel marketing, she said—combining elements like variable data printing, email, PURLs, mobile, social media and more within a single campaign.

“When you combine a direct mail campaign with a social media campaign, there’s a synergistic effect that happens, and the response rates go through the roof,” she said.

Stainbrook also stressed that 3D printing is an opportunity in-plants should be looking at. If the in-plant is too slow to bring 3D printing to its university or company, another department will beat them to it, she said, citing cases of where this has happened. Konica Minolta offers a range of 3D printers through its partnership with 3D Systems, she said.

Stainbrook also talked about using spot UV printing to add an eye-catching effect to pieces. At Graph Expo, she said, Konica Minolta showed the new JETvarnish 3DS digital spot UV 3D coater, the result of an alliance with MGI.

After an excellent lunch, managers heard from former IPMA President Debbie Pavletich about the benefits of joining IPMA. Then Staci Lasker from New Leaf Paper and Jay Depner from Lindenmeyr detailed New Leaf’s 100 percent recycled paper offerings and how the runnability problems of the past have now been corrected.

Once the presentations were over, attendees headed off to Messiah College Press to tour the in-plant. In preparation for the event, Konica Minolta had installed a bizhub Press C1070 at the in-plant. Visitors asked questions about the equipment, got an augmented reality demonstration and mingled. Afterward, door prizes were given away.

This was the second IPMA regional meeting to take place, following a successful event hosted by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana (BCBSLA). At the Baton Rouge meeting, 14 managers listened to speakers talk about paper sustainability and personal goal setting, before enjoying some great Cajun food and then touring the BCBSLA printing and mailing facility.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.

In-plants Meet at Messiah College