Thousands of printed materials help boost awareness of the political process.

Oce, a Canon Group Company and an international leader in digital document management, today announced its sponsorship of the third and final Presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle. The rhetorical battle between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will be held on October 22nd at 9:00 pm EDT in the Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center on the campus of Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.

Oce's sponsorship of the event was suggested by a University alumnus working in Oce's marketing department. Oce's Production Printing Systems division gladly accepted the opportunity to further strengthen its support and involvement in the local South Florida community.

"We found it to be a good fit with what they needed and what we could provide here locally," said Francis A. McMahon, Vice President, Marketing, Production Printing Systems division of Oce North America, a Canon Group company. "And it's a local organization, which ties in to our commitment to support the community around us."

Important Event, Quality Materials
A Silver Sponsor of the debate, Oce has donated approximately $50,000 worth of printing services for materials directly related to the event. These materials include car decals and window cling signs printed on an Oce Arizona® large format UV flatbed printer; space signage, directional signage and access passes, also produced with the Oce Arizona printer and  an Oce ProCut™ digital cutting system; a business partners booklet printed on the Oce VarioPrint® 6320 Ultra digital perfecting system, with covers printed on the Canon imagePRESS C7010VP digital color press, which was also used to produce campus maps, commemorative posters and viewing party programs. Oce also printed press releases for the event on the Oce VarioPrint 6320 Ultra printer.

"Hosting an event of this magnitude is a massive undertaking for a school of our size and requires a lot of resources, both capital and material," said Joshua Glanzer, director of public relations, Lynn University. "Print production was a major line item in our budget until Oce stepped forward and offered it as a donation. That has done a lot to reduce the cost of producing high-quality printed materials for the debate."

Recognizing the immense importance of the event and the need to provide only the highest quality materials, Oce reached out to long-time collaborator Mohawk Fine Papers Inc., a Cohoes, NY-based manufacturer of specialty and premium media. Mohawk immediately leapt at the chance to throw its support behind Lynn University, recognizing not only the importance of the event, but the opportunity to demonstrate its new line of synthetic substrates, Mohawk Specialty Digital Substrates.

"Mohawk has a long history of supporting educational institutions," said Chris Harrold, vice president, business development, digital, Mohawk. "And of course, we jumped at the chance to partner with industry leader Oce on such a great project. The event required high quality materials with numerous coordinating pieces. We were happy to supply a wide range of our new synthetic materials and premium papers to suit the project parameters."

Lynn University couldn't be more pleased with the materials Oce has provided for the debate – or the service it has provided, often working under extremely tight deadlines to get a print job produced and delivered in time.

"Oce has been wonderful and the quality of the materials they have produced for us is unbelievable," said Barbara Cambia, director of corporate relations, Lynn University. "It's like a gift from Heaven."