manroland Sponsored WhatTheyThink Event at Graph Expo 2011 Featuring Dr. Joe Webb  

Lexington, Kentucky USA -- WhatTheyThink today reported that more than 200 industry professionals attended a free event with Dr. Joe Webb, author of "Disrupting the Future," during GraphExpo 2011. Sponsored by manroland, the event was followed by a book signing of Dr. Webb and Richard Romano's new book, Getting Business at the manroland booth, with free copies provided by manroland.

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This one hour event was entitled "Chaos Is Our New Opportunity: New Rules for Offset, Digital Printing and e-Media." During the session, "Dr. Joe" discussed the importance of embracing and promoting media chaos with our clients and why the new rules in a multimedia world are designed to be broken. He also discussed the current and forecasted economic situation, for the general economy and the printing  industry, highlighting what print business owners should be working on now.  

The latest book authored by Dr. Webb and Richard Romano, was launched at the event. Getting Business, which follows the successful Disrupting the Future, was available free of charge to attendees, sponsored by manroland.

"It might seem counterintuitive for the printing industry to promote media chaos with our clients," said Dr. Webb. "Our customers are faced with new media options almost every day, and many struggle with the best way to apply them, if at all. And many, left to their own devices, are turning away from print altogether. The new role for our industry is not to protect print, but to ensure that our customers understand print's new role in the media mix and how we can help them navigate the confusing media choices they have, whether they are small or large businesses."

This was manroland's ninth year as the sponsor of this popular and important WhatTheyThink educational event at Print/Graph Expo. Each year, the audience has grown. The event provides a good opportunity to both catch up on the state of the industry, see old friends and meet new ones. "Our audience is industry CEOs, VPs, product managers, educators, students, investors, and others, from all industry segments," Dr. Webb explained.  

"We have been pleased with our our sponsorship of this event," said Vince Lapinski, CEO of manroland North America.  "Spending time with thought leaders like Dr. Webb helps all of us crystallize our thoughts and future strategies."

Randy Davidson, President of WhatTheyThink, stated, "manroland's continuing generosity as the exclusive sponsor of this important event has enabled WhatTheyThink to make it free to all attendees for the ninth year in a row. We are honored by their decision to support this event and by extension, the needs of printing executives and owners."

Dr. Joe Webb is the director of WhatTheyThink.com's Economics and Research Center, where managers, researchers and analysts can find free and premium content about industry trends, including forecasts and more. Dr. Webb is a recognized marketing authority, forecaster and one of the best known speakers in our industry. His "Mondays with Dr. Joe" has been a "must read" column since 2003. Disrupting the Future, written with Richard Romano, has been hailed as "the manifesto of a new generation of printers" and as "required reading for everyone who has ever put ink on paper." His new book, Getting Business, will be available for general purchase at LuLu.com on September 21, 2011.  To order books in quantities of 10 or more, or to make a customized version available, contact [email protected].

About WhatTheyThink.com

WhatTheyThink is the printing and publishing industry's leading media organization; offering a wide range of publications delivering unbiased, real-time market intelligence, industry news, economic and trend analysis, peer-to-peer communication, and special reports on emerging technology and critical events. Independent studies rank WhatTheyThink as the one industry website that contains the most interesting articles, according to 58.2% of senior printing executives, and the one website most frequently chosen as the "Must Visit and Read." WhatTheyThink also hosts webinars and live events as well as providing content through a syndication program, which delivers content directly to related websites. In addition, WhatTheyThink offers a wide range of lead generation and branding programs that help print- and publishing-related businesses achieve business growth.

For more information about partnering with WhatTheyThink, contact [email protected] or [email protected].

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About manroland

manroland Inc is a division of manroland AG, the world's second largest printing systems manufacturer and the world's market leader in web offset. manroland employs 8,000 people and has annual sales of some Euro 1,7 billion with an export share of almost 80% (2008). Webfed and sheetfed presses provide solutions for publishing, commercial and packaging printing.

For more information visit www.manroland.us.com.

About Dr. Joe Webb

Dr. Joe Webb is the director of WhatTheyThink.com's Economics and Research Center, where managers, researchers and analysts can find free and premium content about industry trends, including forecasts and more. Dr. Webb is a 32-year graphic arts veteran, a recognized marketing authority, forecaster and one of the best known speakers in our industry. He is a Ph.D. graduate of the NYU Center for Graphic Communications Management and Technology, holds an MBA in Management Information Systems from Iona College, and was a magna cum laude graduate in Managerial Sciences and Marketing from Manhattan CollegeAmong his publications are "Renewing the Printing Industry" (2007), and his most recent book, Disrupting the Future: Uncommon Wisdom for Navigating Print's Undertain Future, written with Richard Romano.