Hi, my name’s Karin Weiss, I’m from Sydney, Australia and I’ve attended the HP event today as a consultant, I suppose, to talk about my skill set with regard to the industry, talk about a little bit of - well, join the event that HP have given me a personal and professional opportunity to come see what's actually happening in the U.S.  Which, I have to be honest, for a number of years, I have actually kept my eye on what's happening in the United States, because not just the volume or the magnitude of the people that are here that allow the opportunity for this sort of skill set, this industry, the print technology to take flight. 

But more importantly, I suppose, the comparison is from the company where I am.  In Australia, we get DM.  We get transpromo but more sort of small scale.  I work for a company called Salmat in Sydney and we’re a service provider as well, so we do everything from print.  But I suppose what makes me kind of a little bit special is I understand everything from sales through creative through design, color management, finished art, data IT, as well as programming composition and actually getting it to the printers.  So it’s a nice little niche market to understand from start to finish.

One of the things that I’ve found here in the States which I’m kind of hoping I might make a little bit of a mark on is I think that might be one of the things that's missing is someone that actually understands the process from end to end.  Not from the HP side, because I can totally commend these guys.  They’ve been nothing but professional.  They know exactly what they’re talking about. 

I’ve actually been at both events, so I went to the San Diego with the Asia-Pacific, as well as now with the Americas, and great presentations all the way through, great technology, great prints.  I suppose the thing is, is actually more of customers and all the clients and ensuring they have the right people in house to be able to talk the talk to their clients. 

So I’m kind of hoping from this event, because I actually spoke at both presentations, that not just HP but their customers as well have walked away with a bit of new way of thinking that it is a case of spend money to make money but actually to even have a look at their infrastructure internally and possibly look at setting up something similar to myself, someone who’s passionate, who loves start to finish and can see the development and the growth.  Because future wise definitely variprint/VDP, high-speed inkjet platforms, they’re the way of the future.  I see, like even if you look around in this plant today, there's space because they're going to fill it and it’s going to be filled with HP.

What's to come?  I dare say these things are going to get faster.  They’re going to get wider.  I like the idea of pretty much the creative in me.  I want to personalize everything, so don't just stop at the A4 page, don't just stop at the DM insert.  I’m thinking packaging.  I’m thinking annual reports.  Sky’s the limit and that's why I love what it is that I do.  So if America needs a designer, call me.