White Stone, VA, March 31, 2002--Technologists and strategic planners from leading printing, publishing and graphic arts firms around the world met in Orlando, Florida, on March 6-8, at the 2002 R&E Council/ IDEAlliance Digital Smart Factory Forum to discuss integrated manufacturing in the printing industry, and to learn how several printing industry companies have successfully implemented various automation technologies. The 2002 meeting was the latest in an annual series of conferences initiated by the R&E Council to explore the efficiencies possible when the print manufacturing process is automated. The conference was co chaired by Greg Suprock, technology business development manager for The Sheridan Group, and Charles R. Gehman, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Printable Technologies. Among the speakers at the meeting were John Anderson, consultant at Sinapse Graphic International; Anton Bauer, technical director at MAN Roland; Doug Belkofer, director of third party integration for printCafe; Alan Darling, chief operating officer and chief technology officer at Quality House of Graphics; Mills Davis, principal of Project 10X; Bill Davison, principal at Point Balance, Inc.; Bob Erbstein, principal of Graphic Transitions; William Lavelle, senior associate at Point Balance; Mark Evans, director of technical applications at the Halo Systems division of priNexus; Jason Manosh, director of engineering at Printable Technologies; Bill Marchiony, vice president of consulting at Think 121; Frank Montague, responsible for management information and standardization at R. R. Donnelley & Sons; Ralph Pasquariello, regional sales manager--postpress at Heidelberg USA; David Soden, manager of controls and automation research and development at Heidelberg Web Systems; Felix Stirnimann, manager of print finishing at Muller Martini; Chuck Weger, president of Elara Systems; and Stephen Zisk, director of solutions architecture at Engage, Inc. In discussing the conference, R&E Council managing director Ronald L. Mihills commented: "The 2002 Digital Smart Factory Forum demonstrated the progress being realized in the printing industry toward automated manufacturing and integrated production processes. Particularly gratifying is the cooperation evident between industry suppliers and printing organizations. The R&E Council and IDEAlliance are pleased to provide the venue at which these important issues can be discussed for the benefit of the entire print and publishing industry."