by Paul R. White October 27, 2003 -- Rebounding from the epic effects of September 11, 2001 with fears about travel and additional homeland terrorism, Xplor hosted a successful event in Anaheim last October. Attendance was better than expected and was sharply higher than at the same event in 2001. This year's event—Xplor's 24th Global Electronic Document Systems Conference and Exhibit to be held in Atlanta, Georgia, from October 26-29, 2003—will include innovative educational opportunities as Xplor strengthens its commitment to its members to continue to deliver the highest quality conference and exhibit. Xplor has always been a wonderful event and worthwhile to attend. It remains that way today, due in part to its International nature—over 35% of Xplor attendees travel more than 3,000 miles. Over 60% of Xplor attendees are from companies with more than 500 employees, populating industries ranging from Aerospace, Banking & Finance, Government, Healthcare, Insurance, Manufacturing, Transactional Printing and Commercial Printing. It’s a divers and global audience spanning business communications, printing and document management, across a broad business spectrum. Conference programs, handouts and speakers have always been first-rate, and 2003 will be no exception. Xplor is a “true conference” where you can really get into the nuts-and-bolts of defining how a document can be structured, manipulated, reused and stored. Xplor’s Mission is “to provide an international forum to educate organizations and enable professionals to build and share knowledge concerning solutions, tools, and processes for communicating customized information”. This year, as in the past, there will be a plethoraof stimulating educational sessions and forums to choose from. Xerox Corporation will sponsor a special full-day program on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 run by the Gartner Group. The program features Gartner-moderated vendor and end-user panels. Gartner will ask the vendors the hard questions, and moderate the answers to keep them on track, ensuring that answers are meaningful and practical for the audience. Gartner will also provide attendees with the latest analysis on effective management of office document output systems, while end-user panel members will share their experiences and best practices. Highlights of the Xerox/Gartner program include: Key Trends on Office Document Output Management; Best Practices for Copier, MFP, Printer Fleet Management; How to Put Color in your Office Documents; Output Outsourcing - Promises and Pitfalls of Turning over Document Output. For those faced with complex and/or government printing, Bruce James, Public Printer of the United States will conduct a one half-day seminar (also on October 28th) about the intricacies of government printing. Rounding out the Tuesday docket is an afternoon forum about Security Printing, keynoted by George Phillips, CEO of Verify First Technologies. For Service Bureaus in search of new services and business development ideas, Wednesday features a Service Bureau Printing Forum, keynoted by Kim Herren, Senior VP at DST Output. This session is geared to educating service bureaus on the many different services that can be offered to expand their business. Rounding out Wednesday afternoon is a 4 PM session moderated by Frank Romano that reviews the conference for the entire week—this is one session not-to-miss! In addition to these special sessions, there are numerous how-to sessions going on throughout every day of the conference. Having been a regular attendee for several years, I know that this year’s conference is guaranteed to be a worthwhile way to spend three days. Readily accessible session handouts are another nice thing about Xplor. You can find these on tables in the main hallway outside the session classrooms—after all, this is a conference about printing technology! Enjoy, learn and succeed!