ican conference is attended by more
than 2,000 (including 500 creatives who
obviously don’t need to own HP equipment),
and about 1,500 each in Europe
and Asia. But Dscoop is much more than
conferences. It is a 365/24/7 resource for
its members, through online discussion
groups, webinars and more. Th e organization
has just launched a new web platform
that includes a member directory
accessible to print buyers seeking fi rms
that have HP equipment.
EFI Connect
EFI has taken a diff erent approach with
its annual users group gathering, EFI
Connect. Th e conference, which is held
in Las Vegas in January and attracts
about 1,500 attendees, is wholly planned
and executed by EFI staff , although
it does include a range of external
speakers. It was originally established
by PrintCafé as a users’ group for its MIS
soft ware, and over the years has grown
to include EFI’s entire product portfolio,
although there is still a signifi cant
emphasis on print soft ware. It features
a wealth of educational sessions across
several tracks, plenty of time for networking,
and an exhibit hall/lab that
off ers attendees the opportunity to dig
into various soft ware and hardware
solutions from EFI and the 25 partners
that participated in 2018. 2018 marked
the 18th anniversary of the conference.
Attendance has been at about the same
level for the past couple of years, and EFI
is looking to make it a more social setting
that facilitates even more networking
and information sharing among attendees,
partners and EFI staff in the coming
years, hoping that will stimulate growth
and add even more value to the event.
Ghent Workgroup (GWG)
Founded in 2002, the Ghent Workgroup
is an association operated by volunteers.
It is an international organization made
up of graphic arts users, associations and
hardware and soft ware manufacturers,
as well as educational institutions. Its
mission is building best practices for
publishing and packaging workfl ows.
Th e resulting recommendations and
specifi cations make it easy for increasing
numbers of professionals around the
world to successfully create, process, and
exchange graphic arts fi les for numerous
applications. Its work is designed around
building consensus on PDF creation and
prefl ight settings; it provides a collaborative
infrastructure for creating and
testing international PDF specifi cations.
More recently, GWG turned its attention
to communication beyond color to
processing steps, such as embossing, die
cutting, etc. Th ey have created a number
of specifi cations that are now standards
and incorporated into vendor soft ware.
In other words, the PDF metadata can
now contain end-to-end non-proprietary
production instructions.
Idealliance
Idealliance is best known for its training
and certifi cation programs, most notably
G7. Over the past 18 years, eight diff erent
groups have been merged into Idealliance,
most recently Epicomm. Current
membership, equally weighted between
legacy Epicomm and Idealliance, is over
2,500, with a stable and slightly growing
membership including 13 global affi liates
and 1/3 of its membership outside
the U.S. Idealliance is heavily involved
in standards eff orts, and off ers a wide
range of training and certifi cations
(many ISO compliant) for professionals,
processes, and systems.
Just last week, the association
announced that long-time CEO David
Steinhardt will assume the role of President
Emeritus, with the CEO role being
taken over by Timothy Baechle, eff ective
October 1, 2018. Steinhardt will continue
to be involved. It remains to be seen
what this leadership change will mean
for the organization’s strategy.
Following the acquisition of
Epicomm, the association worked to
develop a more coherent and all-encompassing
strategy that better melds
together the value each of those
separate organizations delivered. It is
unclear at this time how that work will
proceed under new leadership.
Part of the Epicomm package was the
former MASA and MFSA, and Idealliance
– which had key working groups,
standards, and training programs in
mail – has picked up the reins and
expanded advocacy as it relates to the
USPS, and mailing and fulfi llment in
general. Idealliance also continues its
research initiatives from its historical
predecessor NAPL, with hundreds of
printers involved in a quarterly research
program assessing fi nancial positions.
A new Media Buying Trends report is
in the works to move upstream in the
graphic communications supply chain.
On the standards side, in addition to
promoting the G7 method for achieving
gray balance, Idealliance recently
launched XCMYK, an expanded-gamut
printing method that yields a much
wider color gamut than regular 4-color
printing, and is working within ISO on
a series of color and packaging workfl
ow standards. Th e organization also
launched its BrandQ program to educate
brand owners about how to optimize
communication between the brand and
the supply chain, teaching methods for
controlling and monitoring print quality.
Th is program is available in an on-site,
instructor-led model over several days,
and Idealliance is also conducting a
number of webinars to help spur interest
in the brand owner community. Th e
challenge for Idealliance lies in putting
together coherent messaging around
its core innovation and education
off erings that positions and defi nes
everything it does.
North American Publishing
Company (NAPCO)
While NAPCO Media is a for-profi t operation
and not an industry association,
it has been a source of information for
the printing community for the past 60
years and has broadened the scope of its
publications over time to include a wide
variety of industry segments. Print-oriented
publications include Printing
Impressions, In-Plant Graphics, Package
Printing and more. Its publications are a
combination of a printed magazine and
a variety of digital resources, including
online newsletters, videos and webinars.
Th ese days, editorial coverage in the
print segment is being redesigned to
include more “online fi rst” stories, more
coverage of adjacent market opportunities,
and nuts-and-bolts stories on how to
run a printing business better, including
a recent issue dedicated to big data.
NAPCO runs a number of events and has
partnered with SGIA on the PRINTING
United trade show which will replace
SGIA’s Expo with its debut in October of
2019. Scheduled for the fall, it is in direct
24 Printing News August 2018 PrintingNewscom
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