More than 250 printing professionals attended PrintForum 2018, held last week at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ont. The conference program hit on a range of topics for commercial printers, including sheetfed offset, digital enhancement, wide-format inkjet, and production inkjet. Now in its third year, the 2018 edition was our largest show yet.
Greg Neath, General Manager, In-Store Marketing Products for TC Transcontinental Printing, kicked off the day with a dynamic keynote on the company’s shift into flexible packaging. Neath discussed the company’s shift into flexible packaging as well as the five lessons learned when dealing with constant change: Decide who you want to be; Implementation is key; Figure out what not to do; Change fast; and Culture is critical.
An hour-long panel discussion – featuring Carla Johanns, President, Simpson Print; Mike Meshkati, President, SinaLite; Rich Pauptit, President, Flash Reproductions; Warren Werbitt, Founder and CEO,
Pazazz; and Deanne Sinclair, Co-owner and General Manager, Cambridge Label – addressed the top opportunities and challenges facing today’s printing companies.
After lunch, an energetic panel of technology leaders addressed the growing use of business intelligence to provide more complete transparency into the overall operating efficiency of the printing plant. The speakers included: Sean Springett, CEO, Manroland Sheetfed North America; Walter Chmura, Vice President of Technical Sales, KBA North America; and Anthony Thirlby, Global SVP Commercial Segment & Head Of Subscription Sales, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.
The technology panel was followed by back-to-back impactful presentations from CMD Insight and Canon Canada focused on what they feel to be some of the biggest trends and opportunities in the world of digital printing. The sessions were presented by Christian Knapp, President, CMD Insight, on the profit effects of digital additive and subtractive print manufacturing, and Jim Stalford, Senior Director of Sales, Wide Format Printing Systems, Canon Canada, on diversifying commercial print with wide format.
The day concluded with a spirited closing keynote by Brent Moncrief, Vice President, Strategic Marketing and Brand Management, the Americas, Fujifilm North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division, with in-depth look at the state of production inkjet.
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