In-plants Meet in Australia

In Australia last month, dozens of in-plant managers flocked to the coastal city of Cairns, not far from the Great Barrier Reef, for the NIPPACON 2014 conference—the annual meeting of the Network of In-house Print Professionals Australasia (NIPPA). They were joined this year by two U.S. in-plant managers, Cathy Skoglund, manager of Operations and Business Development at Arizona State University, and Lisa Hoover, director of Publications at Bucknell University.

The annual event, now in its 21st year, drew in-plant managers from 19 organizations all over Australia and New Zealand, as well as from the U.S. and Scotland. It was organized by NIPPA President Simon Giles, whose towering presence attendees of ACUP 2014 may recall. With the theme “Destination Cloud,” the three-day conference focused on the growing trend of transitioning from traditional file storage methods to the Cloud. Expanding on this topic, Ricoh’s Alan Burt offered a brief history of the Cloud and explained how it is being used in everyday life.

The highlight for many, though, was the keynote presentation by Kelly Cartwright, a Paralympics gold medalist, who told the inspirational story of her triumph over adversity. When she was just 15, cancer caused her to have her right leg amputated above the knee. Rather than give in to despair, she relearned how to walk and then run with a prosthetic leg. Her record-setting high jump eventually earned her a gold medal at the London Paralympics. She subsequently completed an ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro and works to raise money to combat children’s cancer. Her story had the room transfixed for more than an hour.

Among the memorable sessions, three NIPPA members shared success stories and described what they have done to stay ahead. Sue Hill, from the University of Southern Queensland, talked about adding a high-end 3D printer and taking on commercial work; John Myles, with the Sydney Institute of TAFE, spoke about wide-format printing and the associated benefits/profits it can bring; and Ketan Bedekar, of the Auckland City Council, discussed the challenges of combining seven different local government print shops into one, as well as the subsequent cost and manpower savings and the transition to a full electronic job submission program.

Skoglund impressed the audience with her description of ASU’s student-run in-plant. She detailed how it is positively impacting the lives of her students and talked about three recently graduated students and the roles they have taken in the industry.
Hoover, who is also president of the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP), told NIPPA members all about the association, its history and current activities. She then described her in-plant at Bucknell and its role at the university.

The conference also included breakout sessions, an overview of wide-format printers and other activities, including a type of scavenger hunt through the streets of Cairns called “The NIPPA Amazing Race.”