Solimar On-The-Road: Events in the Rearview Mirror
Since the first of the year, our team has been busy! Actually, I am sure we all wonder where Q1 has gone and we are quickly closing in on the halfway mark of 2018. For our team here at Solimar, we have been attending global partner events, trade shows, educational conferences and member organization events. In fact, including May, we will have traveled to a dozen events around North America and Europe.
Why do we do this? Actually, this is a question we ask ourselves regularly to make sure we are not only receiving benefit from our travels but that we are also driving value in the marketplace. It is a selective process. Our focus is on events where we can educate, network and really make a connection with the end-users and decision makers. In the past few months, we have attended these:
- Global Partner Events
- Educational Trade Shows, like Xploration 18 & MAILCOM 2018
- Print Technology Trade Shows like IMI and Inkjet Summit 2018
In our February newsletter, we wrote about many of these events so our clients, potential clients, and partners would have ideas of where they could plan to spend their travel and education dollars. In the rearview mirror, here are some highlights of the experience that have made an impact on our teams…
PDF Day 2018: Washington D.C.
If you are a printer or service provider and have not attended a PDF Day event in the U.S. or abroad, this is an event you should put on your calendar for next year. PDF has become the most prominent and mainstream print and digital presentment language in the world. It has multiple standards, including one for accessibility, and it is maintained through the PDF Association body of industry experts. As apart of the PDF Association and a committed leader in PDF, Solimar participates in this conference as often as we can. This year, Drew Sprague, our President & CEO at Solimar Systems, presented at PDF Day on the topic of Leveraging PDF 2.0 for High Volume Invoices, Statements and other Personalized Communication. And this is just one of the many great sessions during the event. We invite you to watch Drew’s presentation if you missed it so you can get a feel for the valuable information that is delivered as part of the PDF Day community.
INg Forum 2018
If you aren’t a member of the Imagining Networking Group or INg, then you might not be aware of their twice a year events. The spring event is the large forum and as one of the longest vendor partners to the group, Solimar attends every year. This event continues to stay with us as we look back on the events we have attended because it is a strong and growing group that thrives on collaboration and education. With presentations from analysts like Matt Swain and Pat McGrew from Keypoint Intelligence and valuable insight from members including workflow products, security concerns with HITRUST and inkjet migration…it isn’t an event targeted at selling. It is more like developing a relationship…a partnership…to drive success in the future while taking in education. Every year we find the conversations with attendees and our member clients to stand out and inform what we do as a company.
Inkjet Summit 2018
We think one of our clients said it best, “This is the best event I attend as a print provider all year.” If you are looking to migrate to inkjet or add to your current inkjet holdings, the Inkjet Summit is like no other event. It is set apart by its invitation only and attendee qualification standards, which gets paired with a rigorous standard for sponsor vendor case study presentations. You can learn more about the award for Best Transactional Case Study our team won this year via our SOLicast. Beyond that, the content of the conference and the time you are able to spend with those excited about inkjet and looking to invest in it is second to none. And some of that is because of the multi-vendor style as opposed to the single inkjet vendor-hosted events that one could also attend.
MAILCOM 2018
Focused on the United States mailing market, MAILCOM has a long history of educating attendees on mail processes, the state of the USPS and considerations that will create efficiencies and opportunities. As a long time supporter of MAILCOM, our team at Solimar sees this as an integral part of being experts in digital and print communications workflows. This year, our own David Day, member of MTAC and postal environment expert, presented three sessions. In review, MAILCOM 2018 shows the impact the USPS has on organizations and the speed at which changes in the mailing requirements can impact print and mail providers in the U.S. Top of mind at this conference was the state of the USPS Board of Governors. And providers can’t wait to find out when the next postal discount promotion program will be defined and released. There are few conferences that provide the level of education and networking on this topic the way MAILCOM does.
Xploration 18
This is a conference that strives to educate attendees on Customer Communications Management (CCM), Customer Experience (CEX) and how that dovetails into print and digital communication technologies. With multiple days, tracks and double-digit sessions—there are few topics that aren’t touched on. And some of the experts in the industry have been a part of this organization for over 25 years. This year, our team presented innovative ideas on Variable Data Augmented Reality (VDAR), visibility and tracking through on-premise and mobile dashboards and how to drive optimization in your print production environment. We also won an Honorable Mention Technology Award, which you can learn more about in our SOLicast recording.
Looking back, we believe in-person events still provide a connection that you just can’t get over a webinar, phone call or email. While it can be hard to choose where to spend your time, many of the events we have mentioned, or you will see on our events page, are important places to get insights, learn about new technology and give you the tools you need to drive success in your organization.
Miss some of these great events, but are looking for workflow, inkjet, document enhancement and customer experience solutions. Reach out to our team at Solimar. We would love to show you the latest innovations from our four pillars of Operational Excellence, Differentiated Services, Compliance & Security, and Customer Experience.
For more information, call the Solimar Sales Team at +1.619.849.2800.