May 4, 2007 -- On May 16th, Printing & Imaging Association of New York State will debut its educational programming in the Metropolitan New York area by partnering with Imagination, Ink. to present "Creating Purple Cows – or how to make money and have fun in the digital printing industry." Many a printer recognizes that the digital wave is upon them but don’t quite know how to take advantage of the new print technologies. "Creating Purple Cows" is designed to give them insight as to how to successfully cope with this dilemma. The seminar focuses on "marketing services providers", a.k.a. digital printers, identifying important customer needs, devising innovative solutions to fill those needs (purple cows), and implementing, monitoring and tracking the results. The concept of purple cows comes from Seth Godin’s book of the same name in which he says that purple cows are truly remarkable ideas that draw peoples’ attention. Examples are the iPod, Starbucks and "Where’s the beef?" Jim Olsen, seminar facilitator, shows attendees how creative thinking and group brainstorming can create innovative solutions for customers’ needs by using unexplored combinations of our digital technology. Bruce Meberg, Senior Vice President, USAData, will discuss novel ways to increase response rates and ROI with databases and mail lists. In the seminar, Olsen states that digital printers need not be "marketers", but simply know how to use their technology and capabilities to assist marketers achieve their goals; ergo the term marketing services providers. Olsen will also share his real-life experiences of managing 1:1 marketing projects as well as present many case studies that he has dubbed with a purple cow designation. The luncheon workshop will include an inter-active brainstorming exercise in which attendees actually develop new-to-the-world VDP projects. Attendees will learn: - How to create purple cows using new digital print technology. - The attributes of a successful "marketing services provider". - How to combine teamwork and creativity to invent new ideas. - The effective utilization of personalized images and URLs. - How to use databases and lists creatively. - How to successfully sell 1:1 cross-media solutions. Jim Olsen, President, Imagination, Ink. a print marketing consulting firm specializing in variable data printing and electronic communications for one-to-one marketing is the seminar facilitator. After decades of running printing, publishing and trade association organizations, Olsen is keenly aware of the price pressures on printing services. He sees adding value added services as the opportunity to break away from commodity pricing and begin pricing on value to the customer and not on the traditional per-piece basis. Olsen, editor of the Fourth Edition of the PrintOnDemand Initiative Best Practices is an evangelist of variable data printing and one-to-one communications to the corporate marketing community. To register: Contact Kim Tuzzo at 800-777-4742 or [email protected]. Corporate sponsors: Cohesion, Cole Systems, DirectSmile, Hammermill, HP, USAData, Partner sponsors: Touchpoint Communications Group, Premedia Systems, OnDemandJournal.com If you have any questions about the seminar, Jim can be contacted in Saratoga Springs, New York at 518-587-9635 or at [email protected].