Lexington, Kentucky USA – WhatTheyThink, a leading media, market intelligence and research company for the printing and publishing industries, today announced that its first exclusive printer-only event, Print CEO Forum, which was conducted at the prestigious University Club in Chicago on September 11^th and 12^th, 2009, was a huge success. 

“Our objective in holding this event,” said Randy Davidson, President of WhatTheyThink, “was to bring together industry thought leaders with owners and managers of printing companies to discuss the challenges facing the market and the opportunities we have as an industry to impact and benefit from the new market realities as we emerge from this period of economic turbulence.  While attendance was lighter than we would have liked, in line with lighter-than-normal attendance at Print 09, we were extremely pleased with the quality of attendees, their level of engagement, and, of course, the unique and innovative content we brought to the group.”

 Bob Rosen, author of The Graphic Arts CEO, was moderator for the event and conducted several sessions highlighting how successful businesses are operating differently in these difficult times. Other topics ranged from a thorough review of such topics as the economy, social media, and how the sourcing of print is dramatically changing. 

“A leading indicator that the event achieved its objectives,” said Cary Sherburne, Senior Editor and Director of Services for WhatTheyThink, “is reflected in the fact that several attendees, who were already in the process of organizing strategic planning sessions, reported they were reworking their agendas based on what they learned during the session.”

Keynotes from advertising and marketing guru Bob Lieber, CEO of Original Thought LLC, and Cindy Woods, Director of Marketing for NAPL, were highlights of the event, as were talks from InfoTrends’ Barb Pellow on business transformation and the social media panel conducted by Adam Dewitz, Director of Technology for WhatTheyThink.  Other highlights included two panel discussions, one with innovative leaders from the printing business, including Ed Marino, CEO of Wilde Direct Marketing Solutions; Dave Zamorski, COO of Associates Graphic Services; and Troy Van Dyke, VP of Sales and Marketing for Darwill.  The second panel discussion, on the topic of the role of print in the new media mix, featured Bob Lieber; Brett Knobloch, President, Content-on-Demand, JGSullivan Interactive; and Marc Ziner of Marc Ziner Creative Services.

“We are already in the planning stages of next year’s event,” added Davidson. “As soon as logistics are ironed out, we will begin promoting the event in order to allow owners and managers in printing businesses plenty of time to prepare for attendance.  Based on this year’s outcome, we believe this could evolve into one of the industry’s most significant events at a time when the industry must focus on reinventing itself to align with emerging market demands.”

About WhatTheyThink

WhatTheyThink is the printing and publishing industry's leading media organization; offering a wide range of publications delivering unbiased, real-time market intelligence, industry news, economic and trend analysis, peer-to-peer communication, and special reports on emerging technology and critical events. WhatTheyThink also hosts webinars and live events that are timely and relevant o today's busy industry executives along with consulting and speaker services that leverage a talented pool of writers and industry analysts.

WhatTheyThink consists of flagship site WhatTheyThink.com, discussion forum site PrintPlanet.com, and industry blog PrintCEO.com.