Alexandria, VA, April 17, 2008.  IDEAlliance today announced major new enhancements and updates to its Spectrum Conference, now entering its 33rd year.  David Steinhardt, President & CEO, IDEAlliance said, "With today's new marketplace, emerging technologies and the changing face of the media supply chain, Spectrum must keep ahead of the curve.  In 2008, the IDEAlliance Spectrum Conference becomes Spectrum360 to explore current and emerging technologies and best practices in the media supply chain – creation, production, and distribution across all segments of print, publishing, and cross-media."

To launch the re-design of the Spectrum Conference as Spectrum360, the program will move in fundamentally-new directions to address the needs of the marketplace in five ways outlined below.  The IDEAlliance Board of Directors, at its March 13, 2008 meeting, appointed new Co-Chairs to guide the development of Spectrum360:

    •    Mac Byrd, Marketing, Ramsey Press
    •    Laura Reid, Vice President of Production, Hearst Magazines
    •    Michael Guzman, Managing Director of Integrated Creative Services, FATHOM Communications

#1: New Venue
After 32 years the Spectrum Conference will move from a West Coast location to a new venue:

September 17 – 18, 2008
Marriott New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana

with Help to Rebuild New Orleans…Habitat for Humanity on September 19th

#2: IDEAlliance Advancements for the Industry

Through the efforts of the IDEAlliance and its technical working groups developing specifications, guidelines, best practices, and certification across media, Spectrum360 will become a key vehicle to discuss the primary research and initiatives of IDEAlliance.  Through its work, IDEAlliance is changing the foundations of the media supply chain and workflow with initiatives from printing to the numbers, virtual/monitor proofing, and multi-channel metadata.


#3: Drilling Down for Technical Know-How

Spectrum360 will be co-located – at the same venue – with two new programs developed to provide broad and deep technical information and developments in color and print predictability.  The two programs are:

G7 Summit – September 15

The G7 Summit will highlight G7, the new "Proof-to-Press" process specification that enables a close visual match from proof to press and across printing types.  This new event will feature the latest G7 technology developments and highlight G7 case studies.  The first G7 Calibration Tolerances Report Card will be presented along with awards to outstanding G7 Printers and G7 Experts. Preceding the G7 Summit on September 14, IDEAlliance will conduct a G7 Experts Re-Certification training program.  According to Dianne Kennedy, Vice President of Media Technologies, "IDEAlliance is now experiencing a spike in G7 adoption driven by brand owners who seek to secure the fidelity of brand imaging across all types of printing whether it be advertising in a magazine, high-end commercial advertising or even packaging and billboards and signs.  Launching a G7 Summit is an opportunity for IDEAlliance to bring together the network of those embracing G7 to meet with their peers, learn the latest techniques, and provide input to the Association so we can set a technical agenda for the coming year.  IDEAlliance, the source of all that is G7, is in the unique position to host this event and will provide new technical content that will be available for the first time during the summit."

EXTREME Color Management – September 16-17

Launch of the NEW EXTREME Color Management, September 16-17, to provide advanced technical content and industry discussions about Color Management.  EXTREME Color Management is developed and presented by the Color Management Group.  According to Lida Jalali Marschke, Executive Director of the Color Management Group, "Our new conference is designed to address advanced color management topics that are not currently available at other color management venues.  New color management tools and new tool capabilities will be highlighted to help color management specialists remain on the leading edge of technology.  A town hall meeting where leading color management 'geeks' can engage in open discussions is designed to help drive the agenda for the color management research projects of our Partner, IDEAlliance, for the upcoming year."

IDEAlliance will offer special discount packages for attending the three programs.

#4: New Ways to Interact and Get Engaged

Attendees at conference are looking for new ways to interact, learn, and become engaged in the future of our industry.  The Spectrum360 program will be NEW and FRESH with:

    •    MORE interactive presentations;
    •    MORE focused content that give a broad view and applications of technology and trends;
    •    MORE technical content to include MORE cross-media solutions; and
    •    MORE time dedicated to addressing the current demand for green printing initiatives.

#5 Giving Back – Habitat for Humanity on Friday, September 19…Help to Rebuild New Orleans

IDEAlliance is organizing a volunteer brigade to help with rebuilding the 9th Ward of New Orleans that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  Join us for the day-long event – and feel great giving back to a community that really needs help.  This is an important reflection of our membership's knowledge and empathy in helping find real solutions to real problems for people in need of help… both within and outside of our industry.


Proposed Schedule
Here's the proposed schedule for the events during the week:

Sunday, September 14 – G7 Experts Re-Certification Workshop
1:00-5:00pm Central

Monday, September 15 – G7 Summit
9:00am-5:00pm Central followed by Evening Reception

Tuesday-Wednesday, September 16-17 – EXTREME Color Management
September 16: 9:00am – 5:00pm followed by Evening Reception

September 17: 8:00am – 4:00pm Central Concurrent with Spectrum 360 including Hands-On Lab

Wednesday-Thursday, September 17-18 – Spectrum360
September 17: 8:00am – 6:00pm Central followed by Evening Event
September 18: 8:00am – 4:00pm Central

Friday, September 19 – Help to Rebuild New Orleans …Habitat for Humanity

All Day – Watch for more details!

Spectrum360 reaches back to 1976 when the Spectrum Conference was founded to begin a dialogue across the advertising and magazine publishing communities, Spectrum360 will continue the mission by expanding and exploring the challenges in current and evolving possibilities in media and focuses on real-world applications that work. Most importantly, the guidepost for Spectrum360 will continue be – reaching back more than thirty years – providing a vehicle for cross-industry networking, education, vision and action.  Mac Byrd, Co-Chair of Spectrum360, said, "Now, more than ever, Spectrum is needed to engage all partners in the media supply chain to jointly innovate, define new efficiencies and hence move the industry forward."