manroland Sponsors WhatTheyThink Event at Graph Expo 2011 Featuring Dr. Joe Webb

Lexington, Kentucky USA -- WhatTheyThink today announced the opportunity for industry professionals to attend a free event with Dr. Joe Webb, author of "Disrupting the Future," during GraphExpo 2011. Sponsored by manroland, it will be held Monday, September 12th from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. in Room S105A, McCormick Place in Chicago. A continental breakfast will be available at 8:00 AM. The event will be followed by a book signing at the manroland booth (#1236), with free book copies provided by manroland.

Register today. And watach for a special announcement about this event just prior to Graph Expo.

This one hour event is entitled "Chaos Is Our New Opportunity: New Rules for Offset, Digital Printing and e-Media." During the session, "Dr. Joe" will discuss the importance of embracing and promoting media chaos with our clients and why the new rules in a multimedia world are designed to be broken. He will also discuss the current and forecasted economic situation, both at a macro level and as it relates to the industry as well as highlight what print business owners should be working on now.

"It might seem counterintuitive for us to promote media chaos with our clients," said Dr. Webb.  "It might also seem strange that the new media rules-if we can actually even call them that-are designed to be broken. Our customers are faced with new media options almost every day, and many struggle with the best way to apply them, if at all. And many, left to their own devices, are turning away from print altogether. The new role for our industry is not to protect print, but to ensure that our customers understand its new role in the media mix and how we can help them navigate the stormy waters of today's chaotic marketplace."

This is manroland's ninth year as the sponsor of this popular and important WhatTheyThink educational event at Print/Graph Expo. Each year, the audience has grown, and the event provides a good opportunity to both catch up on the state of the industry, see old friends and meet new ones. "Our audience is industry CEOs, VPs, product managers, educators, students, investors, and others, from all industry segments," Dr. Webb explained. "And this year, we have a few surprises for our audience, so stay tuned."

"We are pleased to continue our sponsorship of this event," said Vince Lapinski, CEO of manroland North America.  "Spending time with thought leaders like Dr. Webb helps all of us crystallize our thoughts and future strategies."

Randy Davidson, President of WhatTheyThink, stated, "manroland's continuing generosity as the exclusive sponsor of this important event has enabled WhatTheyThink to make it free to all attendees for the eighth year in a row. We are honored by their decision to support this event and the needs of printing executives and owners."

Dr. Joe Webb is the director of WhatTheyThink.com's Economics and Research Center, where managers, researchers and analysts can find free and premium content about industry trends, including forecasts and more. Dr. Webb is a recognized marketing authority, forecaster and one of the best known speakers in our industry. His "Mondays with Dr. Joe" has been a "must read" column since 2003. "Disrupting the Future," written with Richard Romano, has been hailed as "the manifesto of a new generation of printers" and as "required reading for everyone who has ever put ink on paper."

To register for this event, click here.

About WhatTheyThink.com

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. Independent studies rank WhatTheyThink as the one industry website that contains the most interesting articles, according to 58.2% of senior printing executives, and the one website most frequently chosen as the "Must Visit and Read." WhatTheyThink also hosts webinars and live events as well as providing content through a syndication program, which delivers content directly to related websites. In addition, WhatTheyThink offers a wide range of lead generation and branding programs that help print- and publishing-related businesses achieve business growth.

For more information about partnering with WhatTheyThink, contact [email protected] or [email protected].

Also connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About manroland

manroland Inc is a division of manroland AG, the world's second largest printing systems manufacturer and the world's market leader in web offset. manroland employs 8,000 people and has annual sales of some Euro 1,7 billion with an export share of almost 80% (2008). Webfed and sheetfed presses provide solutions for publishing, commercial and packaging printing.

For more information visit www.manroland.us.com.

About Dr. Joe Webb

Dr. Joe Webb is the director of WhatTheyThink.com's Economics and Research Center, where managers, researchers and analysts can find free and premium content about industry trends, including forecasts and more. Dr. Webb is a 32-year graphic arts veteran, a recognized marketing authority, forecaster and one of the best known speakers in our industry. He is a Ph.D. graduate of the NYU Center for Graphic Communications Management and Technology, holds an MBA in Management Information Systems from Iona College, and was a magna cum laude graduate in Managerial Sciences and Marketing from Manhattan CollegeAmong his publications are "Renewing the Printing Industry" (2007), and his most recent book, Disrupting the Future: Uncommon Wisdom for Navigating Print's Undertain Future, written with Richard Romano.