Last month the Association of College and University Printers conference brought 82 higher-ed in-plant managers to Phoenix for four days of education, networking and fun.
Alaska
In September, the National Government Publishing Association met for the 34th time, bringing together government in-plant managers from as far away as Alaska, Vermont, Arizona and Mississippi. Though attendance was lower than usual, the conference was a nonstop festival of knowledge and information, with presentations on lean manufacturing, proving the value of your in-plant and how to re-engineer government mail.
DESPITE THE cancellation of the ACUP conference, ACUP lived on this year in a Webinar that attracted more than 100 in-plant managers from around the world. IPG partnered with the Association of College and University Printers to bring about the event, held on what would have been the last day of the ACUP conference. Three of the speakers who were scheduled to talk at ACUP gave their presentations online. Then, to replicate some of the free-flowing shop talk that is ACUP's hallmark, three past ACUP hosts held a lively roundtable discussion about the latest developments in their shops.
Though their conference was cancelled, more than 100 university in-plant managers from all across North America got together anyway on Wednesday for a webinar. Hosted by IPG, in partnership with the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP), the 90-minute webinar was a big success. It took place on what would have been the last day of the ACUP conference, cancelled this year due to economy-related travel bans.
If you think your winter weather is bad, just talk to Warren Fraser, manager of Printing Services at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In a land where tossed water freezes before it hits the ground, daytime temperatures in the -40s can impact the operation of an in-plant in ways far more serious than the chilled ears you’re complaining about. “When we have the extreme weather that we are now experiencing,” he e-mailed, on a recent balmy day of -41, “these are some of the additional challenges that we have to face.” • Personnel may not make it to work because their vehicle
I JUST got back from a coast-to-coast excursion that took me from San Francisco to Boston. I flew out to California in mid-April to attend the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) conference. The event was packed with more than 130 in-plant attendees from 33 states and four other countries. It was wonderful to see so much interaction between managers from such geographically diverse places as New Zealand, Mississippi, Alaska, Scotland, Maine and Florida, to name a few. Attendees fell easily into conversation about their mutual challenges, sharing stories and laughs as if they had been friends for years. ACUP was very well run,