Digitization, restoration and preservation

Images are everything today and at the Consac Imagemakers Sign Show this year, we had lots of images in print and digital format. Consac Imagemakers has grown to be among the top ten largest sign industry tradeshows in North America and this year it was held Sept. 23-24th at the International Centre in Mississauga.

Enfocus started off the Chili Publisher World Tour by announcing the addition of Chili Publish as a Crossroads Application Partner. Chili Publisher was showcased in the October 2011 Tour in New York, London, Paris and other cities. Among the new features were the Chili Publish Plugin for SWITCH, the Chili Publish Flash Viewer and the Chili Publish iPad Reader. The Crossroads partnership gives SWITCH and its counterparts a connection directly into web portals via Chili Publisher API.

Another huge benefit to digital press technology is the opportunity for reduced obsolescence and printing only what is required, when it is required. This reduces associated storage and overall waste without sacrificing quality.

The secret to exhibit success lies in your ability to focus all your resources on a single, achievable and measurable goal. However, there are situations where focusing on one goal may mean lost opportunities, particularly when you are exhibiting at B to C (Business to Consumer) shows.

There are many ways of mechanically binding paper together. We'll focus on the methods most used in commercial and digital shops: Spiral, Wire and Cerlox Binding.

"Get the sale at any cost." "Make more calls." "Tell them what they want to hear."

Sales professionals in virtually every industry are under tremendous pressure to close sales. It is not uncommon for them to hear comments similar to ones above from their sales manager, supervisor, or boss. But this approach does not create trust with customers and does not encourage repeat business or a lasting relationship.

Succession planning is the preparation for giving over control of an organization. It helps answer the "what if" questions and outlines the necessary steps to successfully transition the company from one leader to the next with minimal disruption.

You'd be hard pressed to find a printing industry executive with more experience and business savvy than Gord Griffiths. He currently heads Gordon Group Enterprises Limited, a Toronto-based consulting firm that specializes in helping printing and packaging companies in the areas of revenue building, mergers and acquisitions, recruiting and succession planning. His resumé, accomplishments and roles in key industry organizations during the past 30 years would fill several pages of this magazine and then some.

This month begins a new regular column by Peter Muir focusing on helping you help your customers. Since 2003 his company (Bizucate Inc.) has been delivering education, training, research, coaching and consulting in graphic communications and other industries. Muir has been involved in industry education for more than 15 years, helping printers and other companies with their strategic planning, marketing, business workflows, process design, implementation and management.

We have a lot to be proud of at Graphic Arts Magazine this month. On October 13th, we held our first day conference. Print Survivor was the name of our debut event, and I'm excited to say that we did better than just survive. You will find some of the details and feedback from the event in the wrap-up article. The sessions were informative and uplifting. Sadly, it wasn't all happy news.

First of all, I would like to thank all those who attended our Printing Survivor 2011 event in Toronto last month. A special thanks to speakers John Foley Jr., Jay Mandarino, Arjun Basu and Peter Muir for their inspiring presentations, and to our sponsors – Gold Sponsor Konica Minolta, as well as Sina Printing, SNZ Trading, Green Dot Litho and Harrison Mailing Services. We plan on making next year's event just as timely and relevant, based on continuing feedback from our readers. Check our wrap-up story and audience comments on pages 28 and 29.