ROCHESTER, N.Y.-July 24, 2001-- Despite pressures from a slipping economy, "graphic arts professionals need to continue to hold our quality standard high, because our franchise is the quality level of what we do.'' This was the view expressed by keynote speaker Roy Zucca, a leader of several color standards boards, at the recent Color Confidence Forum conferences developed by Xerox Corporation and held in 11 North American cities from April to June. About 700 ad agency creative/production executives; pre-press professionals; publishers; and commercial, quick and corporate printers attended the free forums, which demonstrated the latest technologies for controlling color consistency and reliability in professional graphic arts printing environments. Sponsors of the forum included Imation Corp., local affiliates of the Printing Industries of America (PIA) association, and other partners. Zucca and other speakers addressed the challenge of balancing quality, cost and turnaround in today's difficult economy. Their recommendation: build profitability by squeezing cost and time out of the graphic arts workflow wherever possible, from creation through production, while seeking to maintain the same high quality level. The greatest source of these new efficiencies is in new digital technologies, said Zucca, who is also chief executive officer of ConsultRoy.com. "For most of us, the trick is to find the places in our workflow where digital technologies measure up from a cost and quality standpoint,'' he said, "and by factoring in the additional value that digital approaches can bring to a job - such as faster turnarounds, mass personalization and improving your relationships with your customers and partners.'' Other presentations included keynotes by Linda Manes Goodwin, executive director, Manes Goodwin Associates; the publisher and editor of forum co-sponsor PrintMedia magazine; and Xerox and Imation executives. The program was rounded out with demonstrations of Xerox and Imation products and solutions and an applications gallery addressing opportunities for profit and growth in digital color proofing, short-run color printing and direct image offset printing, featuring technology from Presstek, forum co-sponsor and Xerox partner. "I learned a great deal,'' said Georg Mauerhoff, New York sales director for pre-press firm Wisconsin Technicolor LLC, Pewaukee, Wisc., who attended the New York event. In particular, "I was impressed by Xerox's technology and how it has managed to re-invent itself in such a short time from being a photocopier company.'' In addition to New York, forums were held in Atlanta; Washington, D.C./Tysons Corner, Va.; San Francisco; Dallas; Boston; Toronto; Minneapolis; Chicago; Philadelphia and Los Angeles.