SOUTHBOROUGH, MA (Feb. 23, 2007) — Well-known Boston area brand designer and communications strategist Michael McPherson will be the keynote speaker at the luncheon to open Graph_Comm 07, Thursday, March 29th in Boston. Graph_Comm 07, formerly called Graphic Communications Day — New England, is Printing Industries of New England’s one-day symposium for media and print specifiers and buyers to be held at the Boston Marriott Copley Place hotel. McPherson will deliver the opening talk at a luncheon scheduled for 11:30 a.m. An exhibit area will open at 1 p.m. that includes more than 50 print service providers and other vendors serving the evolving integrated communications chain. An afternoon of 10 educational seminars and panel discussions start at 1:30 p.m. The event wraps up with a closing networking reception from 6 to 7 p.m. Anyone who buys, specifies or executes print or other media plans is encouraged to pre-register at the PINE web site (www.pine.org) and attend. There is no cost for specifiers and buyers. Individuals from graphic communications manufacturing firms interested in the event must pay $50 to attend. Tickets to the keynote luncheon cost $25. How to succeed in a changing world McPherson, who has helped clients craft messages for more than 25 years, believes society is in the midst of a communications revolution where the methods and means to deliver — and receive — information is exploding. “In the past decade we have witnessed the biggest revolution in communications since Gutenberg invented moveable type,” McPherson said recently. “What are communications professionals doing to adapt — or even to embrace — this transformation?” he asked. “What is the role of print today, and is there anything about print that cannot be replaced by pixels?” He’ll answer these questions and offer more insight acquired from working at the intersection of creative design and embryonic strategic business communication for clients ranging from Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Smith College, Eastman Kodak, Children’s Hospital, Nickelodeon to small and mid-size businesses seeking help with crafting an identity and message. McPherson has acquired insight into where information transformation may be headed and how the creative community can be effective as well as how those who transform ideas, images, text and narration into inspiring messages can succeed. McPherson broke into the business in the 1980s as a publications design director at Northeastern University and a designer at The MIT Press. In 1987 he joined with two other partners to form Corey McPherson Nash, where he serves today as creative director and partner, where he heads the design studio for the 20-person firm. Educational seminars Educational seminars, along with the exhibit area will form the learning core of day-long event. Adobe will offer a technical track where experienced users who are also instructors will delve into Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign/Acrobat, and Adobe’s Creative Suite to show attendees how to get the very most out of these productivity tools. There will be separate sessions geared toward improving communication between the vast type of clients who source, direct and procure print and media services — specifiers, creative and graphic designers, marketing and communication managers and department heads, production managers, advertising agency professionals and others — and the print service providers who serve them. Mailing and postal issues will once again be a seminar focus. Various mailing options, postal rate impact on and requirement changes will be discussed in a seminar setting. A three-person panel will break down GRACoL — an industry acronym for General Requirements for Applications in Commercial Offset Lithography — and how media and print specifiers can benefit by having a thorough understanding of this set of standards used in offset printing. Panelists are Ron Ellis, Gerry Gerlack and Diane Kennedy. Joe Marin, who has drawn large crowds as a speaker at PINE’s past print buyer events, will uncover some tips & tricks in creating PDF files that even regular Acrobat users may not know. Rounding out the seminar track will be a session devoted to the importance of paper and the relevance in graphic arts today of having a higher level of consciousness toward environmental-friendly practices with regard to the use and selection of paper in printed projects. Participating exhibitors Among the participating exhibitors as of mid-January are Winthrop Graphic Solutions, Flagship Press, DS Graphics, Bay State Envelope, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, Image 4, Shawmut Printing, J.S. McCarthy, Franklin Printing, Curry Printing, HP Indigo, Xpedx, Mohawk Paper, Graphic Imaginations, Lindenmeyr Munroe, B&W Press, W.E. Andrews, an R.R.Donnelley & Sons Co., Adobe, CopTech, Matheson Higgins/Congress Press, FGS, The Journeyman Press, UniGraphic, Inc., Graphic Litho, Litho-Craft, Inc., Saltus Press, RIS the paper house, Ames On Demand, American Printing, Charles River Publishing, Universal Graphix, Metro Credit Union, Reynolds Dewalt, Fulfillment Plus Mailing Solutions, Monadnock Paper Mills, PageWorks, Neoprint, Acme Printing, Estimator Corp., Xerox, XMPie, Cranberry Direct Connect, Integrity Graphics, Frasco Printing, Neenah Paper, The Digital Printing Company, The Tripp Co., Copy Cop, Sappi, and Unisource. Registration Information Graph_Comm 07 is an educational and networking event for media and print specifiers. Anyone who directs or executes media planning and purchases including printing and print-related services is encouraged to attend this event. Advance pre-registration is required for all attendees. Complete information can be found at www.pine.org/GC/2007/home.htm. An opening keynote luncheon has been added to this year’s event. Tickets to that luncheon cost all attendees $25. For further information, contact Joe Venti at 508-804-4105 or by email at [email protected].