The Gravure Association of America's Premedia conference and IDEAlliance's Spectrum360 meeting will merge into a new and enhanced conference called Premedia Spectrum 2.0, to be held January 18-20, 2010 at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club, Naples, Fla. The merger of the two conferences responds to technology change and market demands by consolidating conference offerings and addressing the convergence of premedia across multichannel digital supply chains.

"We're truly delighted that IDEAlliance and GAA are joining forces to offer Premedia Spectrum 2.0 in 2010," says Bill Martin, GAA president and CEO. "It's abundantly clear that merging the Premedia and Spectrum conferences has enormous merit for the industry at large, particularly in this changing and challenging environment for the printing and media markets."

David J. Steinhardt, IDEAlliance president and CEO, adds, "The new joint effort with GAA puts premedia at the center of multichannel workflows in the digital media supply chain. Industry groups must respond by streamlining and cooperating to meet the demands of a changing marketplace."

Premedia Spectrum 2.0 will be developed by a planning team from GAA and IDEAlliance, chaired by Matt Huber, a marketing production specialist for JCP Media LP, a division of J.C. Penney Corporation, Inc., Plano, Tex., and co-chair Penny Sullivan, senior director of premedia services for Meredith Corporation, Des Moines, Ia. The planning team is organized to address the needs of professionals working in the digital media supply chain.

The conference will create synergies across the diverse group of media professionals serving ad agencies, brand owners, retail operations, catalog and magazine publishers, packaging and label firms, prepress shops, and commercial, gravure, and specialty printing companies. Key participants will be industry suppliers and manufacturers working with premedia, information technology, and production professionals in a broad range of departments, from design, marketing, and advertising to publishing and editorial, customer service, and product branding.

The conference will provide important industry overviews on market and technology trends as well as drill-down breakout sessions addressing focused market segments. The conference schedule will maximize attendee time commitment, with workshops on January 18 and general sessions and concurrent breakouts on January 19 and 20. Formal conference program and registration information is forthcoming.

The Gravure Association of America, which launched its Premedia Conference in 2007, is a not-for-profit membership organization that serves the publication, packaging, and product gravure market segments in the U.S. GAA, based in Paramus, N.J., was founded in 1987 in the merger of two gravure printing associations dating to 1947.

IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance), which began its Spectrum360 Conference in 1976, is a not-for-profit membership organization dedicated for over 40 years to developing industry standards and best practices that enhance efficiency and speed information across the end-to-end digital media supply chain. IDEAlliance, based in Alexandria, Va., recently announced its incorporation of the P3 (Partnership in Print Production) group.

Visit www.gaa.org or www.idealliance.org for further information.