Stanley Cup Parade Interrupts IPMA Conference
What are the chances that the venerable Stanley Cup — the championship trophy awarded to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff winner — will pass directly by the hotel where the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference is being held? That's what happened in Pittsburgh Wednesday when the city celebrated the Pittsburgh Penguins' victory with a parade that drew thousands of excited fans.
The scene outside the IPMA conference on Wednesday.
Not only did the parade pass IPMA's hotel, but the very conference rooms where sessions were taking place looked directly down onto the parade route, where pickup trucks holding individual players passed slowly by. Some of them jumped out to slap fans' hands and sign their shirts. The high point came when when the Stanley Cup itself passed by, accompanied by team captain Sidney Crosby (who looked directly at IPG's camera for a well timed photo).
Penguins players greet fans.
The sound of the cheering crowd nearly drowned out the panel of in-plant managers offering best practices advice in a conference room that overlooked the parade. Attendance at speaker Greg Cholmondeley's lunch session wasn't as robust as expected due to the dozens of in-plant managers pressing their faces against the windows (in a different room) to look down at the parade.
With the precedent now set for Stanley Cup celebrations being held in conjunction with IPMA conferences, everyone is excited to celebrate the Anaheim Ducks' 2018 NHL playoff victory in Costa Mesa, California, where IPMA 2018 will take place.
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.
