On Thursday February 19th the Printing Industry of Minnesota hosted Twin Cities area print buyers, creatives, marketers, designers and others interested in print at Dunwoody College of Technology for the second annual Print Showcase.

The event was an opportunity to share the latest trends and techniques with print buyers. The exhibitors were a mix of printers and graphic communications service providers, and a few industry suppliers: HP, Presstek, Xerox among others. According to Lola Faufau, Director of Membership and Public Relations at PIM the event had over 300 pre-registrations. Steph Woods, a project manager at Periscope, a Minneapolis ad agency attended the event to "interact with clients, meet local printers and learn about new printing capabilities."

Three break-out sessions provided a chance for attendees to hear industry executives present their views on industry trends.

Michael Keene, President and CEO of The John Roberts Company presented Why Print? Top 10 Reasons to Print – Ways Print Helps You Prosper!. His session presented a collection of reasons and statistics from the Print Council's Why Print? campaign. Keene ended his session with steps printers are taking in making to embrace sustainable manufacturing.

dik Bolger, CEO at Bolger Vision Beyound Print presented Digital vs. Offset to a standing-room only audience. Mr. Bolger didn't present his session as offset printing trumps digital printing or vice versa. He used his session to show examples of why and when to choose the appropriate process for a project.

Paul Gutkowski, Director of Safety & Environmental Service at PIM ended the break-out session with a presentation on Turning Green. Mr Gutkowski shared methods for print buyers to reduce the environmental impact of print, and highlighted what members of the PIM Great Printer Environmental Initiative are doing to embrace print as a sustainable manufacturing industry.