November 2, 2003 -- Many business leaders and other industry experts will have high-visibility roles as speakers at Graphic Communications Day, the expo-seminar event to be hosted by the Association of Graphic Communications (AGC) at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Nov. 6. Some of the notables will take part in morning and afternoon panel discussions led by Frank J. Romano, chair of School of Printing Management and Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology. Others will serve as judges in AGC’s First Annual Graphic Arts Design Competition, a special program for high school students on behalf of the Literacy Partners organization. “The participation of these renowned individuals is a powerful endorsement of the goals of Graphic Communications Day, which itself is an endorsement of the importance of the industry in our region,” said Susie Greenwood, president of AGC. A regional affiliate of Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, AGC is the largest trade association for the print and graphics industry in the Northeast. The event, convening at Madison Square Garden for the third time, has the support of more than 60 exhibitors and is expected to draw 1,000 highly qualified attendees. Corporate sponsors include Xerox, International Paper, EFI, Creo, and Stora Enso. According to AGC, the return of the event represents the re-establishment of a successful trade show for all forms of graphic communications in the New York-New Jersey metro area. Complete program information and online registration are available at www.agcomm.org. Concentrations of Expertise The program will open with a breakfast panel discussion dubbed “The Romano Factor” for the distinctive personal style of its moderator, a prolific author and a leading authority on print industry trends. Joining Dr. Romano in his overview of key technical and business developments will be Frank J. Campagna, publisher, Print Buyer Today; Frank Mallozzi, vice president of worldwide sales, Electronics For Imaging (EFI); Frank Steenburgh, senior vice president and general manager of the Production Systems Group, Xerox Corp.; Greg Gibson, vice president and general manager of the Commercial Printing & Imaging Papers business unit of International Paper; Jann Levesque, group publisher, Graphics Group, Cygnus Business Media; and Robert Stabler, senior vice president, Agfa Corp., and president, Agfa Graphic Systems. Dr. Romano will reprise his role as moderator in an afternoon examination of trends in digital printing. Here he will be assisted by two pairs of digital print service providers, one duo addressing solutions from Xerox, the other discussing technology from HP Indigo. Speaking about Xerox will be Val DiGiacinto, vice president, technical sales, The Ace Group; and Roger P. Gimbel president, Xerographic Reproduction Center, Global Document Solutions. Commenting on HP Indigo will be Cheryl Kahanec, partner, Digital Now Inc.; and Chad Logan, vice president, TBC Color Imaging, Inc. All are based in Manhattan with the exception of Mr. Logan, whose company is located in Teterboro, NJ. “Design Island,” a portion of the exhibit floor where Xerox and several other vendors will demonstrate technologies for integrated production workflows, will be the setting for another highlight of the day: the judging of AGC’s First Annual Graphic Arts Design Competition. The object of the competition is to showcase the skills of metro area high school students who have been invited to design and produce promotional materials for Literacy Partners Inc. (www.literacypartners.org), a New York-based, not-for-profit organization advancing the cause of adult and family literacy. Twelve student teams, each under the supervision of a sponsoring advertising agency, have entered projects that aim to demonstrate competence in design, copywriting, prepress workflow, and printing. Also competing are three teams from Binding Together Inc., a vocational rehabilitation, training, and job placement program for those seeking employment in the graphic arts. Judging will take place in Design Island, where the entries will be exhibited. The work of the first-place team will be used in an advertising campaign for Literacy Partners that is to include posters in New York City buses through an agreement with the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. According to Literacy Partners, a public-service advertisement based on the winning design is expected to run in Newsweek, the nationally circulated newsmagazine. Won’t Be Easy To Impress The judging panel includes Lloyd Carr, director, Graphic Arts Program, New York City College of Technology; Fred Drasner, co-publisher, New York Daily News, and CEO, U.S. News & World Report; Greg Gibson, International Paper; Gordon Kaye, publisher, Graphic Design:usa; Michael Josefowicz, director, Parsons Communications Design Publishing Center, Parsons School of Design; Bill Higgins, director, external affairs, Literacy Partners; Frank Mallozzi, vice president of worldwide sales, Electronics For Imaging (EFI); Bill Martin, vice president of marketing and business development, Seybert Nicholas Printing Group; Nancy Nyberg, Northeast regional sales manager, Stora Enso North America; Dr. Romano; Lynn Staley, assistant managing editor of Newsweek; Thomas F. Wetjen, vice president, Graphic Arts Industry Business, Xerox Corp.; and Roy Zucca, member of the faculty, Parsons School of Design. Professional education will be another keynote of the event as AGC presents 11 seminars covering a variety of technical and business topics from digital design and print buyers’ expectations to sales strategies and “best practices” for quality management. The sessions will be led by expert instructors from AGC’s Center for Graphic Arts Education and by technical representatives from Adobe Systems Inc., Printcafe Software, Xerox, and other vendors. Hall Filled with Preferred Providers The exhibitors represent a broad cross-section of leading suppliers to the New York-New Jersey metro market, including printers, paper merchants, equipment manufacturers, industry publications, and providers of trade and general business services. Prominent among them is Xerox, which will demonstrate the Xerox DocuColor 6060 Digital Color Press in “Design Island” by printing a poster, a personalized newsletter, and a call-for-entries brochure for another AGC event, the group’s annual Graphic Arts Awards. AGC says that Madison Square Garden, a unique venue for trade shows, has proved to be an important factor in the success of Graphic Communications Day. Its universal recognition, its hub location in the heart of Manhattan, and its comprehensive event-hosting facilities have helped AGC to attract repeat attendance and new registrants since the first edition of the event in February of 2002. On Nov. 6, AGC will announce the date of the event’s scheduled return to the Garden in 2004. The exhibit area will open after “The Romano Factor” concludes at 9:30 a.m. and will remain open until 6:00 p.m. Limited exhibit space remains available and can be reserved by contacting True North International, the event’s management group, at (410) 923-6579; [email protected]. AGC can be contacted at (212) 279-2100; [email protected]. Written By Patrick Henry Patrick Henry is the director of Liberty or Death Communications, a consultancy specializing in research, education, and promotional services for the graphic communications industry. He is also co-chair of the Graphic Communications Day planning committee. Contact him at (718) 847-9430 or at [email protected]