I recently finished reading Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer. I highly recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in innovation, creativity or technology. While the book is full of amazing facts and ideas, there is one idea that stuck with me as being highly relevant to our industry: Lehrer explained that innovation tends to happen at the "edges" of a discipline. This means that it is not Gutenberg the printer who invented movable type, but rather the wine connoisseur in him that saw the opportunity for a new way to use a wine press. I cannot think of an industry that is more suited than printing to interact on the "edges" of other disciplines. We are one medium of many in the advertising space, and increasingly each piece has to be better understood by the rest. The question then becomes which of the media will be most innovative by borrowing ideas from others? 

This issue is an interesting mix of things printed, digital, and digitally printed. Our lead article focuses on PDF/VT technology. The "VT" stands for variable transactional, explains Jason Lisi, Associate Professor at Ryerson University. The article explains the benefits of switching to this workflow.

The School of Graphic Communications Management hosts an annual colloquium featuring a topic selected by the students. This year's event Spark, focused on innovations in packaging. The format of the event was a bit different. Ian Baitz, Chair of the school and Jim Downham, the president of PAC welcomed guests.

Associate Editor Natalia Gilewicz with a preview of what's to come in the April edition of Graphic Arts Magazine.

How fitting that during preparation for our green issue one of my lectures at Ryerson was a review of colour psychology. In class we talked about the significance of the colour green in North America. Some of the initial sentiments included talking about growth, springtime, and new beginnings. However, other words began to come up as we ran out of the obvious—jealousy, greed, envy and greenwashing. These present a very different sentiment than the initial offering; an important point because one thing we often forget is that there is always two (if not more) sides to every story.

We are less than four months away from drupa and the atmosphere in the graphic arts industry seems to be quite mixed. There has been considerable bad news recently with companies downsizing, restructuring, or shutting their doors completely. At the same time, others are investing in new technology and generally everyone seems to be excited about drupa!

What a productive November! Hopefully you had an opportunity to step out to enjoy Graphics Canada. The atmosphere at the show was very positive. I had an opportunity to chair a session about Social Media. A big thank you to Slava Apel, Lee Eldridge and Anita Windisman (whose article you can read in this very issue) for participating in an exceptionally informative panel. We celebrated the session by having a bit of fun at the Xerox booth taking silly photos. There were also many evening events, including a successful Ryerson reunion event hosted by the OPIA.

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.

September has come and gone. We hope that you had an opportunity to attend Graph Expo in Chicago, or have at least found it helpful to follow along in some other remote way. While some of our authors and staff were enjoying the show, I traveled east -- way east -- to Budapest, Hungary. I had an opportunity to present at the International Association of Research Organizations for the Information, Media and Graphic Arts Industries' (IARIGAI) 38th annual research conference. This is an international event that gathers scientists to discuss advancements in print and media.

September in the printing industry marks the beginning of all sorts of exciting industry events. We have GRAPH EXPO in September, Graphics Canada in November, and of course drupa 2012. In addition to these trade shows that have become staples in our industry, there are new events each year. This October, we would like you to pencil a GAM event into your calendar. By popular request, we will be hosting an day of good food and good company to help you figure out how to thrive in this difficult market. I am an advocate of live events — as they provide the instantaneous human feedback that is required for good networking. Of course I have nothing against a good webinar, but there is simply more pleasure in dressing up, getting out and shaking hands. You will find more information about the event on our website.