Charlottesville, VA -INTERQUEST, a leading market and technology research and consulting firm in digital printing and publishing, announced a successful 2010 Digital Printing Forum in Washington, D.C. for both government and higher education document professionals. The day focused on trends, new technologies, and steps to improve workflow and operational efficiencies. This was the fifth annual forum for government professionals. A higher education curriculum was added in 2009 because of the synergies for these two vertical markets for print. The forum took place at the Omni Shoreham on Wednesday, November 17th with more than 100 print specialists in attendance for the full day event.

According to Gilles Biscos, President of INTERQUEST, "With a recovering economic environment, both government and higher education printing professionals are excited to learn more about the opportunities in digital printing and how they can make their operations more efficient and reduce costs. Over the past five years, the conference has become a day of education and networking for key professionals."

Michael L. Wash, Chief Information Officer for the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) lead off the morning session with his keynote presentation entitled "The U.S. Government Printing Office: An Ongoing Journey". Wash gave an informative history of the GPO and how the department had to evolve from a print-centric workflow to a content-centric workflow. To do this they developed FDsys, an advanced digital system that will enable the GPO to manage government information from all three branches of the U.S. Government. Wash stated, "We have a very important mission of keeping America informed, participating in an electronic world and participating in a print world while trying to stay relevant and stay cost effective and serve the citizens of the United States."

Gilles Biscos, President of INTERQUEST, presented an analysis of key trends in publishing, print-on-demand, transactional, and graphic arts markets followed by a panel of leading-edge government and higher education professionals. Douglas Maxwell, director of the Print & Mailing Production Center, Brigham Young University, discussed his department's strategic direction in the use of print-on-demand and variable data. The print center has developed departmental storefronts with repositories of information and template-driven solutions to make it easy for their customers to order print. They also allow customization of certain print products. Ray Chambers, CEO of Chambers Management Group, who works with colleges and universities to make their print operations more efficient, emphasized how a digital workflow can improve productivity and decrease costs. Lynn Noble, Product Manager of the U.S. Postal Service shared some of the new t echnology options that can be used with printed documents. He presented an innovative campaign used by the USPS to promote priority mail and how this campaign changed market share for USPS in the packaging area.

The afternoon started with a panel of speakers from leading printing systems vendors who shared their companies' strategies, product offerings, and initiatives in these markets. Speakers included Blake McMahan, from Hewlett-Packard; Steve Anderson, from RICOH/InfoPrint Solutions; Eric Kempton, from Océ North America; and Lynn McGunnigle, from Xerox.

Toby Cobrin, a Director at INTERQUEST, then gave the results from recent research which focused on trends, opportunities and challenges in both the government and higher education markets. The day ended with another user panel consisting of Leslie Rutledge, Director of Graphic Services at Brown University. Rutledge has a background of innovative transformations in a university print environment. She completed a digital transformation of San Diego State University print center and now is in the process of making the same changes at Brown. Rutledge stated: "What you really need to do is turn your implant into an entrepreneurial enterprise" and shared how she was accomplishing the task. Michael Munshaw, Head of the Print Shop at the Library of Congress explained how he had to 'sell' the print shop's services internally and show the value they provided. Damian McInerney, Printing Services Manager at the Commonwealth of Virginia, Dep artment of Motor Vehicles focused on some of the opportunities of running an in-house print operation with both offset and digital equipment. He reviewed his challenges and opportunities within the department today and what actions are being taken to run the department more efficiently.

The Forum was sponsored by leading industry players, including Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Océ, Presstek, RICOH/InfoPrint Solutions, RISO, and Xerox with additional support from American Printer, the Association of College and University Mail Services, Inc. (ACUMS), the Federal Electronic Document Systems Association (FEDS), the Franklin Technical Society (FTS), In-plant Graphics, the Interagency Council on Printing & Publications Services (ICPPS), the National Association of College and University Mail Services (NACUMS), the National Government Publishing Association (NGPA), and the Xplor Mid Atlantic Region (MAR).