Cary Sherburne:  Hi.  I’m Cary Sherburne, Senior Editor at WhatTheyThink.com and I'm here with Sonia Megert who is Vice President of Pantone Digital Business Unit.  And I should say Dr. Sonia Megert.  Welcome.

Sonia Megert:  Hi, Cary.  You can, but you must not.

Cary Sherburne:  Okay.  So we’re here at the launch of PantoneLIVE and I know you played a very large role in that.

Sonia Megert:  Thank you.  It’s a big day for us.

Cary Sherburne:  And it’s a beautiful day in London.

Sonia Megert:  Absolutely.  It’s almost springtime.  

Cary Sherburne:  So I was wondering if you could maybe, you know, we talked to you at the event a little bit about the partnerships that you have at launch with Sun Chemical and with Esko, and I wonder if you could talk to me about what else you have planned in order to expand that ecosystem to other partners.

Sonia Megert:  Well, as we have discussed today during the introduction, this is an open system.  So we have started with partners that are now key in developing this initiative with us.  But quite clearly, we need everyone to endorse PantoneLIVE to make it a success, and we are very much aware of this.  Our partners are aware of this.  And so we have technology, SDKs, that enable people to actually plug into our Cloud.  And right after this launch event we will certainly, you know, have people contacting us.  We have already contacted many large companies and informed them about the possibility to be joining the program.  So certainly it’s got an interesting, you know, over the next few months and maybe a couple of years to see who is going to come on the bandwagon of the new Pantone.

Cary Sherburne:  Yeah, this is great.  And so you have—really, you have the design community, you have the brand owners, you have the converters, because you’re starting a focus with packaging but you’re going to move into other areas, right?

Sonia Megert:  Yes, that’s the goal.  The brand is translated in many different packaging, rigid plastics, even textile, you know. 

Cary Sherburne:  Brochures.

Sonia Megert:  And brochures.  So, you know, we very much know this is a first step, it’s an important step.  Because with what we have at the beginning, we covered already I would say more than 60 percent of the packaging applications.  But it’s a work in progress.  This is why it’s fun tonight.  It’s going to be living.

Cary Sherburne:  Living.  

Sonia Megert:  Living, and continue to live.

Cary Sherburne:  So then the other piece is the software and the equipment manufacturers, so the RIPs, the workflow people, you’re talking to all of those people too.

Sonia Megert:  Of course, because what we give is a digital standard.  But at the end of the day, you have a lot of actors in a workflow who will need to take that data and process it to their own tool, their own technology.  So we say—we like to say, you know, PantoneLIVE is the how—the what, sorry—what you need to target.  But we will need all these people who can take that digital data and then make it real in the application.  First, a very good example is Esko because, you know, they can work with their color engine very well, with spectrum data, with the tints that we have in the Cloud, and really get great results, amazing results.

Cary Sherburne:  That’s great.  So we’ll be watching over the next few months to see how this transpires and how it can actually revolutionize color.

Sonia Megert:  Exactly.  Expect to hear a lot about PantoneLIVE.

Cary Sherburne:  I will.  Thank you.

Sonia Megert:  Thank you.