A record number of attendees receive valuable ideas and instruction about how to make the most of their Esko solutions

Miamisburg, OH (USA) – Esko, a worldwide leader in packaging solutions, reports that a record crowd of nearly 600 people attended the recently concluded EskoWorld User Conference, held May 19-22, 2013 at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix. In addition to drawing an exceptional crowd, the program, including product overviews, future roadmaps, workshops, and user presentations, was extremely well received by all attendees—customers and partners alike. 

“We are grateful that we seem to out-do ourselves at EskoWorld every year,” enthuses Mark Quinlan, President, Esko Americas. “Perhaps it’s no surprise that attendance is growing as it is. It is our objective to plan and execute the best educational program we can for our customers. EskoWorld is organized for them to learn how to make the most out of their Esko solutions. From the feedback we’ve received, we accomplished what we set out to do, and have given our customers tangible plans of action that they can take advantage of, when they return to their jobs.”

General sessions set the tone

After Mark Quinlan officially opened EskoWorld 2013, Carsten Knudsen, CEO of Esko, offered the company’s keynote, providing Esko’s current view of the industry. Bernard Zwaenepoel, Esko Senior VP Software Business followed, delivering an overview of product development and updates with ‘Strategic Focus Areas and Roadmap 2013’. Jan De Roeck, Esko Director of Solutions Management, moderated two sessions of ‘Meet the Partners’, allowing EskoWorld attendees to get more familiar with companies from Esko’s Partner Zone.

The general session ended with a keynote presentation from Bill Capodagli, co-founder of Capodagli Jackson Consulting. Capodagli is currently the most requested speaker on Walt Disney’s success and leadership principles in the US, as one of the most recognizable storytellers on the cultures of Disney and Pixar. Capodagli enlightened the audience with Walt Disney's original success formula, "Dream, Believe, Dare, Do", that is transforming both entrepreneurial and Fortune 500 companies alike. In his presentation, he provided thoughts on how to build innovation in a company and challenged EskoWorld guests to get their employees more engaged in corporate objectives using Walt Disney’s principles.

EskoWorld break-out sessions: A wide variety of product and application topics

“While I consider myself a power user of ArtiosCAD, I had not attended EskoWorld since 2008. I wanted to catch up and get current about ArtiosCAD and learn about new features from the more recent versions—and what is coming up,” says Warren Patterson, Structural Designer, Weber Display & Packaging. “In one of the sessions, we could offer a wish list of features we’d like to see. I had a suggestion—it was one of the reasons I wanted to attend. Every session was helpful, although I particularly appreciated the Tips & Tricks and advanced StyleMaker and ReportMaker sessions. The other reason I wanted to attend was to talk with others in the industry, and Esko people. They can help with ideas you might not get anywhere else.”

Once again, more than 90 sessions covered the entire range of Esko product areas, with solution tracks covering diverse of applications including digital flexo, commercial print prepress, packaging prepress, structural design, 3D design, brand management, digital print, and digital finishing. The sessions varied in nature from roadmaps, offering views of a current product and planned development in the future; academies, providing hands-on operator training sessions on Macs and PCs; and presentations, sharing industry overviews or product and service information. This year’s highlights were a number of stories from users and educational institutions:

• James Stanley, Xpedx: From the Packaging Design Center to the Sign Shop
• Kenneth Miess, Victory Packaging: Implementation of ArtiosCAD Enterprise
• Ken Madsen, GSG: Accelerating Speed-to-Market with Studio
• James Traber and Bonnie McMaster-Bigum, Catalent Pharma Solutions: ArtiosCAD Illustrations on the Production Floor
• Abbe Evers and Michelle Rademacher, University of Wisconsin: Esko in Education: A Student’s Perspective
• Bobby Congdon, Clemson University: Strategies for Prepress Workflow Automation Education
• Pete Rivard, Dunwoody College of Technology: STEAM Power: Adding Art to Technical Education Using Esko Solutions
• Dr. Chip Tonkin, Clemson University: Flexography for Printed Electronics

“While I have been working with ArtiosCAD for several years, I have never had the opportunity to attend EskoWorld until this year. Esko was offering free registration to speakers who were willing to make interesting presentations about the things they do with Esko solutions. I was pleasantly surprised when I was chosen. I spoke about how we use ArtiosCAD on the production floor to create 3D drawings of how components and kits go together,” remarks Jim Traber, Packaging Engineer II, Clinical Supply Services, Catalent Pharma Solutions. “The open atmosphere during EskoWorld classes and presentations was great. The Roadmaps were particularly gratifying. I was able to suggest a feature our company has been eager to find in ArtiosCAD for quite a while. And, there’s a good shot that we might see it in a future release. Overall, the classes were very beneficial and I look forward to trying some of the advanced features first-hand.”

EskoWorld Partner Zone helps customers extend solutions

“We are a recent Esko partner and attended EskoWorld in the Partner Zone for the first time. We had the opportunity to be in front of many customers, and market test our augmented reality solution with Esko Studio and ArtiosCAD,” comments Mickaël Jordan, Augment Co-Founder & CMO. “We also participated in three break-out sessions, including two Roadmaps and a presentation, ‘Sharing in 3D’. The experience has been amazing. EskoWorld exceeded our expectations. The people who visited our booth were enthusiastic and we returned to the office with lots of business cards with many viable leads to follow up. We look forward to working with Esko more in the future.” 

Repeating the success from last year’s EskoWorld, this year’s Partner Zone was staged in the same room as the general sessions as well as breakfasts and lunches. Attendees actively pursued Esko partners to ask questions about shared technologies during session breaks and meals. EskoWorld Partners included Augment, Cape Systems, CHILI Publish, DuPont, EFI, Enfocus, HP, MacDermid, Meta Communications, The Quick Brown Fox, Southern Lithoplate, Storaenso, Tesa, Western Computer and X-Rite.

“We wish to thank the Esko community for enthusiastically turning out in fantastic numbers to learn how to get the most out of their systems,” concludes Quinlan. “We've already started planning to make sure next year’s program is just as rewarding.” 

Held annually in the United States, similar EskoWorld events are now being scheduled by Esko on a global basis. For 2013, events have been recently held in Gent, Belgium; Stuttgart, Germany; Warsaw, Poland; and Helsingborg, Sweden. Further editions of EskoWorld 2013 are scheduled in the United Kingdom, France, and other countries. Customers can refer to http://www.esko.com/en/company/press-and-news/Events for these, and other future events.

EskoWorld 2014 is planned for June 15-18 2014 at Walt Disney World, Swan and Dolphin Resort, Orlando, FL.