manroland sponsors Dr. Webb's new book at Graph Expo 2011

Lexington, Kentucky USA -- WhatTheyThink today announced the special pre-release edition of the new book by Dr. Joe Webb and Richard Romano, Getting Business: Opportunities for Commercial Printers and Their Clients in the New Communications Arena. Copies of the book will be available exclusively in the manroland booth (#1236). Dr. Webb will be signing books on Monday immediately following his breakfast presentation, "Chaos Is Our New Opportunity: New Rules for Offset, Digital Printing and e-Media." This free event will be held Monday, September 12, from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. in Room S105A, McCormick Place in Chicago. A continental breakfast will be available at 8:00 a.m. The presentation will include a discussion of some of the main points of the book.

Register for this event today.

Getting Business was informed by a year and a half's worth of conversations with printers and printing industry groups across the country and around the world, and picks up where Disrupting the Future left off. Getting Business focuses on today's strategies for marketing for small and mid-size businesses, with concrete examples of how multiple media channels can work together to reinforce brands and enhance the visibility of a business. The book also carefully explains the steps that commercial print businesses of all sizes can take to implement these new "marketing services." It goes the extra mile to address the concerns of printers who feel uncomfortable talking to customers about new media, marketing strategies, or anything beyond print, and offers alternatives for those who decide that marketing services do not fit their strategic resources.

The centerpiece of the book is seven detailed "case studies," a cross-section of hypothetical small and mid-size businesses and all the marketing strategies-print, non-print, old and new media-they can employ to build their own businesses. Written from the perspective of 2015 in order to show how today's "new" media are likely to evolve in the next four years, these "sample businesses" run the gamut from a business-to-business manufacturing company and business-to-business service provider, to a small retail business like a hair salon, to a professional services provider like a plumber, to a medical services provider such as a dentist-even two types of commercial print shops are included. The book looks at how all these companies would have marketed themselves 30 years ago, how they market themselves today, and how they likely will do so in 2015.

"Dr. Webb and Richard Romano look to renew the entrepreneurial spirit of print businesses as they create, adapt, and discover new roles and reasons for print in this dynamic media age," wrote manroland CEO Vince Lapinski in the book's Foreword. "This new book embodies the manroland core values of Groundbreaking, Inspirational, Determined, and Reliable. manroland is proud to be a sponsor of this latest volume of Dr. Webb's and Mr. Romano's work."

Both authors will be on hand at the manroland booth at Graph Expo to sign copies of Getting Business:

Dr Joe Webb: Monday, 9/12, 10:30-12:00, 3:00-4:30
Richard Romano, Tuesday, 9/13, 11:00-12:30

You can follow the authors at their Getting Business blog at http://gettingbiz.blogspot.com and @gettingbiz on Twitter.

This is manroland's ninth year as the sponsor of the popular and important educational event at 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, and hear Dr. Joe's unique insights into the years ahead.

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 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. Webfed and sheetfed presses provide solutions for publishing, commercial, and packaging printing. Visit the manroland, Inc. website at 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 College. Among his publications are "Renewing the Printing Industry" (2007), and his most recent book, Disrupting the Future: Uncommon Wisdom for Navigating Print's Uncertain Future, written with Richard Romano.

About Richard Romano

Richard Romano (he as yet has no advanced degrees, but often runs a temperature) has been a professional writer for the graphic communications industry since 1994. From 1999 to 2008, he was a senior analyst for TrendWatch Graphic Arts (later The Industry Measure), and from 1995 to 2001, had been a writer and editor for Micro Publishing News as well as its then-sister publication Digital Imaging. Over the years he has also written for such magazines as Graphic Arts Monthly, GATFWorld, Printing News, HOW, and others. He is the co-author, with Dr. Webb, of Disrupting the Future, and was editorial director of Dr. Joe Webb's Renewing the Printing Industry: Strategies and Action Items for Success. He currently contributes to WhatTheyThink.com as the managing editor of the Going Green blog, and is the author of several reports and other projects for Pira International, Library Journal, and other organizations.