AGENDA

SESSION DETAILS

Building a Large Format Business: From Start-Up to Success

Location: Royal III & IV
Date: Tuesday, July 15
Time: 10:00AM - 10:45AM EST

PRESENTER

Marco

Boer

Vice President

I.T. Strategies

Marco Boer is recognized as a trusted consultant to the digital printing industry. He has a reputation for being able to put complex information and concepts into a context that is easily understood by his audience. With more than 35 years of experience in advising digital printing equipment and supplies manufacturers on developing the next generation of digital printing technology, Mr. Boer has developed a deep understanding of digital printing technology and its applications. I.T. Strategies, Inc. conducts and delivers research data, offers interpretation and advice, identifies specific opportunities, and helps organizations implement these strategies to achieve effective solutions. Mr. Boer has been the Conference Chair of the popular IJ Summit and Digital Packaging Summit since 2014, and actively participates on many advisory boards across the industry.

PANELISTS

Steven

Vid

CEO

Merlin Printing Inc

Steven Vid’s five-decade immersion in the printing world began in 1977 at Merlin Printing, a business his father helped establish in 1963 to serve Long Island's weekly newspapers. Since then, he has witnessed—and adapted to—decades of transformative change, from the rise of photographic typesetting to today's advanced digital and wide-format technologies. Today, Merlin Printing thrives with two Heidelberg web presses, state-of-the-art cut-sheet digital presses like the Canon varioPRINT iX sheetfed inkjet press, and a comprehensive finishing department. Merlin's expansive wide-format division is anchored by the impressive 128” SwissQ Nyala UV inkjet printer, which is complemented by HP Pagewide and Canon Colorado M printers, an MCT 64” x 128” CNC cutter, and laminators and banner welding equipment. This deep legacy and continuous investment in technology ensures Merlin is perfectly positioned to meet the diverse printing needs of retail store operators and countless other businesses to keep their customers smiling.

Dave

Carroll

Founder/CEO

DOPE Marketing

Dave Carroll is the founder of DOPE Marketing based out of Minneapolis Minnesota. After phasing himself out of his own profitable home service business, he made the decision to take all that he learned and help other businesses grow. Dave started DOPE Marketing after realizing that there was a better way to help companies grow using direct mail and traditional marketing. DOPE helps businesses send automated direct mail, handwritten notes and gift boxes to prospects and customers across the country with no minimum order. Dave’s advice has been regularly featured in top publications like Forbes, LA Weekly, Inc Magazine and Chicago tribune. Through his career, he has worked with businesses as large as Ashley furniture, Nike, and The Golden State Warriors, all the way to local companies including Roofers, HVAC, Painting and other home service businesses. Dave’s mission is to help business owners realize that anything is possible if they simply put their mind to it.

SESSION DESCRIPTION

We are all looking for net new revenue, and wide format printing is one of the most attractive, high margin businesses in the print industry. It is also one of the more complicated applications to produce, due to the learning curve required to understand the application requirements. Will it be inside or outside, under what environmental conditions. How long is it expected to last, and can a trade-off in performance be made to reduce cost and/or increase sustainability? Wide format prints more likely than not will also require some type of finishing, including grommeting, mounting, and even sewing. At its extreme, you might have a major national retailer that orders 2,000 signs weekly for each of its 2,000 stores, that have to be printed in the different sequential order for each of the 2000 different layouts in each store, totaling 16 million posters per month, each having to be delivered just-in-time, with no room for failure — and we haven’t yet talked about how to sell sell signage in a manner that is scalable. In this session, we will be joined by two wide format signage print shop experts who will share just some of the things you will need to consider before embarking on a journey into wide format signage applications.