PRINTING United Alliance, HP Help Southeast Printers ‘Future-Proof’ Their Businesses
In a further demonstration of their support of the printing community, HP and PRINTING United Alliance came to Raleigh, North Carolina, to support local printers with the third installment of the PRINTING United Alliance Live and Local events sponsored by HP.
Understanding that some of the best insights come from your peers, the event started with a sit-down dinner at the StateView Hotel located on North Carolina State’s campus — an apropos venue as the university is known for its evolution from an agricultural and mechanical school to part of the southeast region’s innovation research triangle.
In true southern fashion over a bounty that included greens, soft-shell crabs and even cold Shot-Gun Betty brews, the printers as well as the industry events from both HP and PRINTING United Alliance shared life and business lessons hard won through real-world experience. They also celebrated each other’s successes and journeys as professionals and people.
How to survive and thrive persistant embedded inflation
Renowned printing industry and financial expert Andy Paparozzi explained the current state of the economy and the printing industry. Most importantly the chief economist at PRINTING United Alliance explained the concept of persistent embedded inflation with data-rich evidence that he translated into actionable advice for the printers in the audience. Paparozzi’s message? Focus on productivity and efficiency to escape the pitfalls of persistent embedded inflation and avoid the temptation to retain or continue price increases.
Where to go when markets collide
Printing industry veteran and NAPCO Research’s principal analyst Lisa Cross provided attendees with an overview of the convergence happening across the printing industry. She acknowledged that convergence is often seen as a threat by print service providers, but can be an opportunity — especially as demand for products that cannot be digitized grows. Like Paparazzi, Cross delivered actionable advice to help printers leverage digital printing to ease into new markets.
How to partner with a tech giant to move into the future
Monty Faulkner, sales account manager for labels and flexible packaging for HP Indigo Labels & Packaging, encouraged the audience to leverage the immense technological and business knowledge within HP to level up their business. He shared not only how the company’s presses and PrintOS software can ensure that their business are productive, but also shared how business owners of all sizes can tap into the business intelligence with HP to break into new markets and land new customers.
To further help the printers on their journeys to elevate their business, HP also gave each of the attendees a free one-year membership to the PRINTING United Alliance.
As editor-in-chief of Packaging Impressions — the leading publication and online content provider for the printed packaging markets — Linda Casey leverages her experience in the packaging, branding, marketing, and printing industries to deliver content that label and package printers can use to improve their businesses and operations.
Prior to her role at Packaging Impressions, Casey was editor-in-chief of BXP: Brand Experience magazine, which celebrated brand design as a strategic business competence. Her body of work includes deep explorations into a range of branding, business, packaging, and printing topics.
Casey’s other passion, communications, has landed her on the staffs of a multitude of print publications, including Package Design, Converting, Packaging Digest, Instant & Small Commercial Printer, High Volume Printing, BXP: Brand Experience magazine, and more. Casey started her career more than three decades ago as news director for WJAM, a youth-oriented music-and-news counterpart to WGCI and part of the Chicago-based station’s AM band presence.
