New York, N.Y. – Printing Industries Alliance, announced that their Digital Print Think Tank III which was held on February 21st 2019, exceeded expectations on all levels. Information was presented to attendees from three different points of view.

First, the digital press manufacturers made presentations that gave their company overview and then highlighted their current product offerings. Vendor representatives also sat on a panel that included Gerry Giuliano of Heidelberg ; Patti Groebe, VP Xerox ; Matt Mac Dowell, Konica Minolta; and Donna Covannon, CMO Xeikon. The panel was moderated by industry expert, Pat Henry, Senior Editor of Printing Impressions Magazine.

The next point of view was from printers who were experienced with digital printing and who shared their digital printing paths. The panelists were Ron Sizemore, Partner, Jurist influence, Long Island City; Dale Williams, Executive VP, Command Digital, Secaucus, NJ; Rob Mayerson, Chief Technical Officer, Sandy Alexander, Clifton, NJ and Bruce Beery, Grandville Printing, Grandville, Michigan. This panel was also moderated by Pat Henry. The attendees responded very positively to the information shared by the printers.

The last panel represented editors who were industry experts. Pat Henry came to the other side of the table to represent digital printing in general. He was joined by Steve Katz of Label & Narrow Web, who fielded label questions and Richard Romano of What They Think who handled wide format questions. Marty Maloney moderated this panel. The high level of expertise of the editors was very evident and once again the attendees were very appreciative.

Marty Maloney, Executive Vice President of the Printing Industry Alliance commented on the event “When you get to do an event multiple times, you keep trying to make it better. This time the focus was content. The panelists and questions were crafted carefully and truly resonated with the printer attendees. We also reduced the number of presentations and increased the number of printers and their locations which represented as many as ten states.

An update on the PIA’s Print Drives America Foundation was presented by Marty Maloney who is also the Executive Director of the print advocacy initiative. Marty said that many printers and vendors were calling Print Drives America, the true voice of the industry. It was pointed out that Print Drives America has a single goal of increasing the market share of print and making it more and more attractive to marketers. Other organizations handle things like lobbying, environment and paper. Only Print Drives America concentrates exclusively on marketing the value of print. Industry reports are indicating that print continues to do very well, especially in direct mail, books, labels and packaging and free standing inserts.

Lastly, Mark Subers, of NAPCO, gave a presentation of Printing United, a new industry trade show to be held in Dallas in October. The day was concluded with a celebration of cake and bubbly marking the 25th anniversary of digital print. Xeikon, one of the first to enter the digital print market in 1993, got to cut the cake in front of more than 100 attendees.