May 9, 2003 -- Chestnut Hill, MA: Dana Consulting, a firm that focuses on helping printers and their customers communicate more effectively, is offering a new Print Buyers’ Panel Program to PIA affiliates and other trade organizations. Margie Gallo Dana, president of Dana Consulting, has developed a model for a buyers’ panel that works well for trade groups of all sizes. Ms. Dana has developed and run several such panels successfully, including a recent panel that she co-sponsored with PINE, the Printing Industries of New England, in February. The event drew a crowd of 150 printers and customers. The heart of the program is a 90-minute panel discussion, moderated by Ms. Dana, a former corporate print buyer who founded her firm in 1997 to promote effective communication between printers and their customers. Working with the trade organization, Ms. Dana assembles a panel of 4 to 6 print customers, develops a series of relevant questions about their buying practices and preferences, and moderates a lively panel discussion that’s designed to enlighten an audience of printers and/or print customers. For a "sneak preview" of a Panel Program, you can purchase a full transcript of a recent event at www.printconsulting.com. “Bringing printers and print customers together, in quasi-social, quasi-educational settings, is important,” says Ms. Dana. “These panels are valuable on several levels – they provide a stress-free environment for buyers to ‘talk’ to printers, they help close the gap between printers and customers, and they’re fun for both the panelists and the audience. Putting the fun back in printing is just what we all need.” For more information or to receive a Panel Packet, contact Margie Gallo Dana at [email protected] or call (617) 730-5951.