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In January, I wrote about the importance of investing in training, especially during tough economic times.  I was just reviewing the agenda for the upcoming 44^th annual IPA Technical Conference and it looks like it is going to be another valuable way to make that training investment. The event is scheduled for June 8-10 in Chicago.

Although I don’t have a production role—being merely one of the “hangers on” as I like to call the journalists and consultants who are not facing the day-to-day production challenges encountered by print industry business owners—I have attended this conference many times in the past, and have always found it to be one of the best run and most educational events in the industry, at least in my experience.  IPA has done a great job of keeping the content up-to-date in a very rapidly changing industry, and that is saying a lot for a 44-year-old conference.  This includes some breakthrough programs like the Proofing RoundUP which has been conducted for the last several years.  The Proofing RoundUP consists of comparative tests of hard and soft proofing solutions, and I believe it has played a significant role in moving the state of proofing to a new level by providing vendors with an unbiased (and competitive) view of how their solutions perform, thus helping them improve their offerings.