2018 End-User Conference Sets Standard with Emphasis on Education, Establishing Connections, and Enhancing Engagement
Above: Bob Radzis (right), president of the thINK Board of Directors and chief customer officer at SG360, and Todd Roth, thINK conference chair and vice president of core publishing solutions for Thomson Reuters, set the stage for what’s on the agenda during the opening session.
Above: Francis McMahon, executive vice president, production printing, Canon Solutions America, executive sponsor of thINK, informs the audience that Canon’s business is simply about enabling pages for the customers’ Canon serves””the end users attending thINK.
Above: Lori Messina (left), thINK Board of Directors vice president and owner/executive vice president of Access Direct Systems, and Tonya Powers, thINK board member and senior manager of marketing, Canon Solutions America, encounter a T-Rex during the light-hearted opening session of thINK 18.
Any doubts regarding the viability of inkjet in the production print space were quickly dispelled at the thINK 2018 Conference, September 5″“7 in Boca Raton, FL. thINK is an independent community of Canon Solutions America production print customers, solution partners, and print industry experts with more than 1,800 members. The organization’s mission is to assist businesses achieve accelerated growth and productivity by providing a forum for members to network with peers, share best practices, and learn from industry leaders and solution partners.
The “INK” in thINK refers to inkjet, a technology where Canon excels as a worldwide leader with many of its machines”” such as the Océ VarioPrint i-Series, the Océ ProStream 1000, the Océ LabelStream, and the Océ Colorado 1640 series””ranking at the top of the inkjet production food chain.
Because this is an end-user conference, content was geared specifically to commercial printers such as book printers and printers specializing in direct mail which are either already users of Canon inkjet technology or are considering adding an inkjet option to their businesses.
This year’s conference featured more than 600 attendees, including 300 end-users who came to network and learn by attending up to five of the 25 different breakout sessions. (Multiple sessions were held during each of the five different time slots, so it wasn’t possible to attend more than five sessions.) More than half the sessions focused on inkjet technology, output, and workflow. Other sessions examined how to attract millennials to blue-collar jobs in printing centers, direct mail, and data-driven marketing.
We attended five sessions and found “Leveraging Inkjet to Create New Applications and Revenue Streams,” “How to Sell the Value of Inkjet,” “What’s New in Production Inkjet Innovation,” and “Innovations in Direct Mail” particularly enlightening. A Partner Pavilion featured 40 partners, including paper companies, finishing equipment manufacturers, software developers, and other vendors whose offerings fit squarely within or on the periphery of the inkjet universe. Here, one might see booklet makers from Bourg, inkjet papers from Georgia Pacific and Midland Paper, finishing solutions from Duplo and MBO America, and output management software from Ironsides Technology.
From our perspective, Canon and the thINK Board did an excellent job creating a top-notch user conference. Some of the sessions had a subtle Canon marketing message, but that message was supplemented with solid information pertinent to the printers attending the conference and by printers that appeared on some of the panels in these sessions. It’s one thing for a vendor to sing the praises of its own inkjet technology, but the message carries more weight when it’s coming from an end-user.
The sessions with printers that have purchased inkjet devices for their businesses validated inkjet as a low-cost, low-maintenance, high-quality printing option. Chatting informally with owners and employees of these companies that are already using inkjet machines, or weighing the options of doing so, over breakfast, lunch, and dinner was equally valuable. As one printer that had recently installed a VarioPrint i300 in their business told me at breakfast, the company had been so impressed by the output, it was considering replacing all its toner machines with inkjets.
When I asked if customers notice the difference between ink and toner, he told me it hadn’t been an issue for most. He acknowledged inkjet doesn’t print on glossy paper as well as a toner device, but so far, that had only been an issue for one customer, and he believes that Canon will eventually rectify that issue.
The overall message across the sessions and in my informal conversations with end-users was inkjet is transforming the print business, allowing printers to cut costs, complete jobs faster, and enjoy enhanced reliability. It was clear from talking to attendees that Canon is poised to sell more inkjet devices because of this conference.
Two General Sessions””one on the first day and the second on the last””featured two dynamic speakers, Ted Rubin, CMO, Brand Innovations, a social marketing strategist, and Jamie Clark, adventurer and CEO of Liveoutthere.com, an inspirational speaker who described his three attempts to scale Mt. Everest (he succeeded on the third) and his motivational work with the Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals.
Another effective element of the conference was its emphasis on networking. Victor Bohnert, thINK executive director, noted during the opening session that the core mission was to connect people with each other and give them a competitive advantage. Similarly, Bob Radzis, president of the thINK Board, emphasized that finding people of similar interests and leveraging those collective experiences for personal growth is what thINK is about. From the get-go, interaction with other attendees was encouraged. Each attendee wore a watch-like wristband that when clicked and held next to another attendee’s wristband exchanged mutual contact information.
This was the fourth thINK conference, but the first for us. Attendees told us this year’s sessions were some of the best ever as the content was more intermediate and advanced compared to content at earlier events that had more of an inkjet 101 emphasis. We hope to cover this event in the future if Canon will have us. The company and the thINK community have created a special event. Despite the strong Canon footprint throughout thINK, the most indelible imprint remains that of its end users, and that makes thINK a model for any successful end-user conference.
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