Independent User Association Draws 314 Member Attendees at the Wynn in Las Vegas

Last month, I attended the Kodak Graphic Users Association at the Wynn in Las Vegas on behalf of WhatTheyThink.  This is one of the oldest independent users groups in our industry.  Although it has undergone a few name changes, and there was some trepidation on the part of the members when Kodak acquired Creo, the group has not lost any of its vitality.  This is the first year the media has been invited to attend, and I was joined by four other journalists from the United States and Canada. The meeting was well organized, and the Wynn, of course, is an outstanding venue. Members of the media were free to attend any of the sessions, except the elections and Executive Bullpen, a frank exchange between members and the Kodak executive team.

Tom Clifford, of RR Donnelley, the group’s president, has been a member since 1997 and on the Board for four years.  The group has seen a bit of decline in attendance in the past few years, with last year seeing 206 attendees.  This year, the Board aggressively marketed the event to its 6,000 or so members worldwide, using a cross media campaign managed by Board Member Susan Kinney of Castle Press and reaped the rewards of their hard work.  Even though the economy is a bit uncertain, and the users group meeting was competing with drupa and an early IPA conference, there were 314 members in attendance, a 50% increase over last year.  The campaign involved more than 59,000 direct marketing pieces between mail and email, and 23,000 of those incorporated pURLs, with some 400 hits back to the pURLs.  In addition to increased attendance levels, GUA membership is up 11% over last year.