Senior managers and business executives looking to better understand how current and future inkjet production printing technology, software, and solutions will impact their business and investment decisions met in Ponte Vedra Beach Florida, April 27-29, 2015, for the third annual Inkjet Summit. They were joined by leading technology manufacturers, software providers, supplies vendors, and thought leaders for this very unique business forum.

Canon has been a keynote sponsor of this event all three years. This year Canon was awarded the conference’s prestigious “Company to Watch” award, which is voted on by the attendees each year. (We also received the same award two years ago at the inaugural event in 2013.)

This is an invitation-only event for senior executives responsible for the purchasing and implementation of inkjet solutions. The Inkjet Summit focuses on bringing together all the key players of the production inkjet supply chain to build relationships and learn from each other. Content is constructed in an objective, educational, and supplier-neutral way.

During the three-day event, there were keynote presentations from industry experts, panel discussions, and case studies on new and emerging inkjet technologies. Hot topics included:

• Inkjet Technology Options – Making Sense of What to Buy and When to But It by Marco Boer, VP, IT Strategies
• Keynote Case Study presentation by Symeta, a Belgian-based company that shared its story of transitioning from an in-house offset direct mail operation to a production inkjet provider of targeted direct mail campaigns that leverage the value of digital print and data to drive greater ROIs for retailers. This spurred conversations with the attendees around the potential enabled through production inkjet capabilities. There were also Market Segment Breakout Sessions covering book printing, direct mail and direct marketing, transaction/transpromo printing, and general commercial printing.
• A variety of vendor case study presentations where we had the ability to present our customer case studies in the commercial, book, direct mail, and transaction segments.

It is interesting for me to notice how far this industry has come so quickly. Some observations you may find useful:

• Adoption of production inkjet continues to accelerate as the technology advances. Industry forecasts state that total inkjet impressions will account for close to one-third of all digital printing volume worldwide by 2016. Attendance at the Inkjet Summit has grown every year, and new attendees this year were from a wider range of markets.
• One of the concerns from last year’s event centered on the availability of inkjet papers. There have been some significant improvements over the past year as paper mills have created more inkjet substrates and increased inkjet paper availability across the country. Canon has made significant investments in this area, including the launch of the U.S. Media and Solutions Lab located in Boca Raton, FL. We currently work with over 30 paper mills and continue to test and approve new inkjet papers every month. Let us know if you would like a current list of approved inkjet papers for our technologies.
• New developments are making production inkjet available for more and more graphic arts applications. Canon has launched two new inkjet technologies this year:
  • Océ VarioPrint® i300 press - a high-speed, sheet-fed, full-color inkjet press
  • Océ ImageStream™ 3500 press – capable of printing on standard offset coated and uncoated sheets at high speed and high quality.
• Another concern has been how a digital inkjet workflow impacts an organization’s overall business. Several of the breakout sessions discussed the systems workflow and marketing implications of moving to shorter-run, highly variable print jobs and the role that data and analytics play in driving revenue for print service providers. There were also a number of new workflow partners at the conference with new solutions for workflow software and finishing.

There is no other event I know of that encourages as much interaction and sharing of knowledge of production inkjet technology. As one attendee commented, “The level of detail and discussions of practical digital solutions cannot be found in other industry trade show events.” Another added that it was “the best networking event I have attended in the printing industry.”

If you are interested in attending the Inkjet Summit in 2016 as an executive, you can contact Lisa Jones at ljones@ngagevents.com

*Canon is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. Océ and Océ VarioPrint i300 are registered trademarks of Océ-Technologies B.V. in the United States and elsewhere. Océ ImageStream is a trademark of Océ-Technologies B.V. in the United States.
© 2015 Canon Inc. All rights reserved.

Tonya Powers is the Graphic Arts Segment Marketing Manager for Canon, with a focus on marketing strategies across North America in the Commercial and Book print production markets. 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 that bring value-add to the production print customer and print industry. Previous to Canon, Tonya spent several years at Hewlett Packard on the marketing team developing go-to-market strategies within the Graphics Solutions Business for their Wide Format and Digital Press & Inkjet divisions. Tonya has been in marketing roles identifying and implementing B2B marketing strategies since 1999.