Event with record attendance in US focuses on print workflows and opportunities to expand services to other forms of content  

Kehl, Germany – DALIM SOFTWARE, makers of highly efficient, scalable software solutions for the creation, production and management of cross-media content, reports that this year’s US DUO (US Dalim Users Organization) user group meeting hosted a record number of attendees. The event, held April 24-26 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington DC, covered a wide range of production automation issues facing printers and content originators, along with product and industry updates. It also marked the appointment of Robert Fenikowski, Director of Publishing Technologies at American Media, Inc. as president of DUO, and Marcus Spiegler, Preflight Operations Manager, AAAS, as vice president of DUO.

While the ‘DNA’ of both DALIM SOFTWARE and its customers has a heritage in print, topics discussed issues facing print providers and content originators, as well as opportunities to expand into other service areas, including web and video.

“I think that this year's USDUO event had something for everyone. We got a great preview of DALIM ES4 and TWIST 7, and a sneak peak of upcoming features, including video support, DAM, and DIALOGUE support for Photoshop layers just to mention a few. We all received great ideas about how to take advantage of DALIM SOFTWARE technology,” comments Fenikowski. “I’d also like to thank Paul Giame, JWT's Prepress Technology Manager and outgoing president of US DUO. He organized two great meetings and helped me prepare me as the incoming president.”

The meeting kicked off with a presentation from Dr. Carol Werlé, DALIM SOFTWARE CEO, offering DALIM SOFTWARE’s vision of content publishing for 2013. Highlights included a keynote presentation from Bob Sacks, well-known President and Publisher of the Precision Media Group. His presentation ‘The Past, Present and Future of Publishing’, discussed historical trends, challenges and, significantly, opportunities for publishers and print service providers. John Putterbaugh, Ph.D., EVP and Chief Digital Officer of Nellymoser, Inc., offered his perspective of enhanced workflows for video ingestion and management and multi-channel distribution. To some degree, he likened the development of video workflows to be similar to that of the print industry as it struggled to manage the early challenges of desktop publishing. This was of particular interest to DALIM ES users. In addition to all of the print workflow controls, ES 4 will also offer all the tools to manage, transcode, annotate and approve videos.

Other noteworthy conference sessions included:

• Emanuel Arcésilas (Galilée); ‘Customer case study: Royal Canin: ES API Integration’
• Robert Fenikowski; ‘Customer case study: ‘Advancing the magazine production workflow through effective use of DALIM ES, DIALOGUE Engine, TWIST and SendMyAd’
• Panel discussion: ‘Opportunities for increased automation through dynamic imposition’ (moderated by Ed Zepernick, Continental Web Press)
• Panel discussion: ‘Challenges of integrating workflows and technologies across the media channels of print, web and mobile’ (moderated by Paul Giame of JWT)
• Mike Muscato (Blanchard Systems) and Christophe Bindler (DALIM SOFTWARE) presented a perennial favorite, ‘Tips and Tricks’.

A series of presentations from DALIM SOFTWARE covered roadmaps and upcoming new developments for TWIST (‘A new generation of workflow automation’), ES (‘Opening new market opportunities’ and ‘New digital asset management opportunities’), DIALOGUE Engine (‘10 years of soft proofing’ and ‘The next (R)evolution’) and MISTRAL (‘How to boost your PDF Workflow’ and ‘Migrating MISTRAL to ES: Imposition and new opportunities’). DALIM SOFTWARE also offered a look into the future with ‘Video post production with ES.’ Attendees also had an opportunity to ‘Ask the Engineers’ questions about product issues or future features.

“US DUO offered a forum that was beneficial to users as well as, I suspect, DALIM SOFTWARE, by informing the attendees where DALIM SOFTWARE products are heading and offering an opportunity for users to offer ideas for future product enhancement,” comments Spiegler. “The sessions were intriguing—in particular the presentation about video workflows by John Putterbaugh and the session by DALIM SOFTWARE’s Jacques Thiebauld, who demonstrated how ES could be used as a digital asset management system. I also found it interesting to make connections with users and the speakers.”

The venue of Washington DC provided guests a wonderful opportunity to visit the historical Old Ebbitt Grill and take an evening walking and riding tour of a number of historical sights.

Preceding US DUO, EuroDUO was held March 20-22 at the Barbican in London. Attendees from throughout Europe met to share ideas, network with old and new friends, and discuss technology issues of mutual interest. Content followed roughly the same agenda as US DUO, including a presentation from Bob Sacks. However, two case stories were of more local interest, including ‘How did McKenzie Clark & ES contribute to the 2012 Olympics’ Success’, and a ‘Findel Education Resources case study’.

“This is a challenging time for both print service providers as well as content originators like publishers and ad agencies. They are sorting out how to effectively and efficiently reach their audiences,” explains Carol Werlé. “Our conversations with US and EuroDUO attendees showed that while there are many challenges, DALIM SOFTWARE can offer of forward path of services that complement print—like web-based e-Pubs and video workflow. We look forward to showing them an even more concrete roadmap next year.”