Kennesaw, GA - Heidelberg continues to demonstrate its commitment to its customers and the printing industry at large. The company’s recently revised market strategy hinges on increasing customer exposure to Heidelberg technology in a targeted way, creating more opportunities for 1:1 engagement. 

A series of interactive road shows slated to visit key metropolitan areas through the end of 2013, coupled with themed open house events at Heidelberg’s North American Print & Packaging Technology Center in Atlanta, give customers and prospects a chance to sample the range of Heidelberg solutions in an intimate setting. Road shows are designed for customer convenience, typically lasting from two to three hours in total. Likewise, daylong open houses at Heidelberg’s Atlanta Tech Center spare customers the cost of multi-day travel and housing associated with most major trade shows.

Customer response to Heidelberg’s shift in focus has been overwhelmingly positive.

“The open house we attended was a great event as well as a tremendous learning opportunity. The new automation on display was awesome,” said Ron Jewett, Vice President, Operations at Phil Vedda and Sons, Inc. in Cleveland, OH, who attended a recent open house devoted to finishing. “With customers demanding shorter runs and faster deliveries, it’s imperative for printers to take advantage of every available opportunity to reduce set-up times and become more efficient. Heidelberg knows what it takes for a printing business to succeed, and the open house setting really helps drive home its message in a focused way.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Terry Remaly, Plant Manager for Hopkins Printing in Columbus, Ohio, who observed, “At an open house that is as thoughtfully organized as this one was, you can spend more one-on-one time with the people who run the demos. You can ask more in-depth questions, then get the answers from someone close by who has the information you need. That’s not necessarily the case at a big national show,” he said. “Also, being away from the plant for just one day is more convenient because it takes a less time out of your busy schedule. Another benefit is the chance to spend time and swap ideas with people from other companies that have some of the same equipment you have and that work in similar ways. We find this type of networking to be very valuable.”

Hitting the HEI Way

To reach even more customers, Heidelberg recently launched a series of application-specific road shows on a variety of “hot topics” including Hybrid Printing, UV Printing, and Workflow Optimization. The roadshow concept, dubbed “On the HEI Way,” is based on questions printing companies might be asking themselves when looking to either grow or diversify their business offerings, and turn them into a presentation format for open discussion with a smaller group in more localized areas.

Todd Upchurch, Print Production Supervisor, First Command Financial, Irving, Texas, attended Heidelberg’s Dallas road show event discussing “Hybrid Printing: Digital and Offset, Best of Both Worlds.” “Any printer interested in hybrid printing would be smart to attend one of Heidelberg’s road shows on the topic,” he said. “We’ve been running offset presses alongside our Ricoh digital machine for some time; and while Heidelberg’s expert presentation confirmed that we’re already doing things right, it also gave us some ideas on how to continue to improve on our success. For anyone in the market for new equipment, this was a must-attend event.”

Another attendee, Jim Miller, General Manager at Southern Champion Tray in Mansfield, TX, said he experienced “An excellent program that helped us see what’s on the market and where Heidelberg technology is going. We were especially interested in what Heidelberg offers in the digital wide-format category. We left with plenty of food for thought.”

To date, the “HEI Way” has led from Dallas, Texas and Minneapolis, MN, to Salt Lake City, UT. Upcoming stops include “Exploring UV” in Cincinnati, Ohio (July 23), “Optimizing your Workflow / Adobe Cloud” in Boston, MA (July 23), “Exploring UV” in Ann Arbor, MI (Aug. 21) and Chicago / Addison, IL (Aug. 22).

Uniting Customers with the Right Solutions

Consistent with Heidelberg’s goal of bringing customers together with the individualized solutions they need, visitors to Heidelberg’s Technology Center in Atlanta soon will notice an expanded equipment lineup at the demonstration facility. Besides four offset presses, three of them brand new installations, a Stitchmaster ST 500 saddlestitcher, Diana folder gluer, Easygluer, and Varimatrix diecutter, the demo center will host three drupa-generation folders, a Polar PACE cutting system, a POLAR 66 cutter, the Linoprint C751 and Linoprint C901 cut-sheet digital presses, two VUTEk wide-format inkjet printers, two Suprasetter CTP systems, as well as fully integrated workflow from web-to-print right through to press reporting. All of the installations will be complete by the end of August. The presence of these solutions in the best-equipped showroom in the world outside of Heidelberg, Germany, fits Heidelberg’s consultative sales approach.

For more information about forthcoming On the HEI Way roadshows, visit www.us.heidelberg.com. To make arrangements to tour Heidelberg’s Atlanta Technology Center, contact your Heidelberg account executive.