Orlando, FL, June 14-18, 2015 saw over 100 managers of in-house printing and mailing operations gather to attend numerous educational sessions, roundtables, and keynote presentations to find new ways to help energize their facilities. Billed as the world’s largest meeting of in-plant managers, this year’s In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association’s (IPMA) “Splash of Color” conference featured breakout sessions for government, education, and corporate in-plants plus mail, management, technology, and operations tracks. 

One popular presentation was a keynote address by John Foley, Jr., President/CEO of interlinkONE and an industry expert. John’s new book, Business Transformation: A Path to Profit for In-Plant Facilities, was released at the conference. In his presentation he discussed how to market in-plant services internally and how to become more responsive to customers’ changing needs. John stressed that in-plants are different in so many ways from commercial service providers and have an enormous need to transform their business models to stay relevant, viable, and avoid the threat of outsourcing. 

Canon helped with the launch of the book by hosting a book signing in the Canon booth. Attendees were excited to get an autographed copy of the book and to learn tips on new areas in which to expand their in-plant’s capabilities and become even more trusted partners for their parent organizations.  The books were printed on Canon digital presses—the covers on the Canon imagePRESS® digital color press and the inside pages on the Océ VarioPrint® 6320 Ultra+ digital monochrome press. 

Supporting the topic of John Foley’s presentation was another keynote by Howie Fenton, Associate Director of Operations Consulting for InfoTrends. Recognizing that the threats to in-plants are increasing every year and only the best managed and most innovative are surviving, Howie’s presentation entitled “What Makes a World Class In-Plant and How to Become One!” discussed strategies used by world class in-plants to respond to the changing needs of customers and add more value to their parent organizations. 

Conferences like this are so important because of the networking opportunities they provide. Discussions with peers are an excellent way to learn how others are addressing common problems. The IPMA, recognized as the leading expert providing forums for education, networking, and professional development, provides a competitive-free environment to do just that—exchange ideas and offer solutions with the largest concentration of best-in-class managers and industry experts. Networking was taken to a new level this year with the introduction of the IPMA conference app. This interactive app let attendees not only review all sessions and speakers, create a schedule, and earn points by checking in at sessions, events, and exhibitor booths but more importantly connect with other attendees and speakers by starting a discussion, asking a question, or making a statement. Rather than having a conversation with several people at a lunch table, attendees could reach 100+ individuals. Most attendees used the app and thought it was a great way to enhance the networking experience. 

Past attendees to the annual IPMA conference say this is often the only conference they attend all year. In-plant managers rely heavily on the information gathered to make their year-long purchasing decisions. The presentations, breakout sessions, networking contacts, and vendor fair of equipment and software providers at this year’s event offered ample opportunity to be well-positioned for the coming year’s challenges. 

Canon and Canon imagePress are registered trademark of Canon Inc. in the United States and elsewhere.  Océ and Océ VarioPrint are registered trademarks of Océ-Technologies B.V. in the United States and elsewhere.  
© 2015 Canon Solutions America, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sheri Jammallo is  the Corporate Enterprise Segment Marketing Manager for Canon Solutions America, with a keen focus on marketing strategies across North America in  the Transactional, Direct Mail, Data-Center and  In-Plant print production  space.  She brings with her a wealth of industry knowledge that enables her to lead field relevant go-to-market production print strategies and programs for Canon Solutions America that bring value-add to the production print customer and print industry.

Previous to Canon Solutions America, Sheri spent many years in several roles at Xerox Corporation.  She was a Production Print Solutions Manager in the Northeast responsible for high end production print technology and services portfolio, leading a business development team of Production Print Sales Specialists within the In-Plant and Commercial print space.  Prior to that role, she was a Production Print Business Development Executive as the lead business development strategist to grow market share in In-Plants and Data-Centers within the New England region.

Sheri began her career in the Commercial print space at Standard Register.  She spent several years with Standard Register in business development and leadership roles, with a strong focus on go-to-market growth strategies of a vast portfolio of commercial print applications to the Financial, Insurance, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Public Sector, Educational and Retail vertical markets.