Inkjet Summit 2017: All Things Production Inkjet

Marco Boer introduced pii’s Jamie Huff last year, who spoke on how inkjet transformed his business.

What started out as a leap of faith five years ago has turned into what’s become the most sought-after invitation to attend a one-of-a-kind printing industry conference.

The hosted buyer model of the Inkjet Summit — where all expenses, including airfare, five-star resort hotel accommodations, meals and entertainment, are paid for the printer attendees — was a totally new industry concept five years ago as the inaugural Inkjet Summit came together.

Frankly, it was a bold financial leap of faith to guarantee hotel and meeting rooms upfront as early adopters and prospective users were being pre-qualified and subsequently invited to attend the premier event, at the same time that many of the sponsors — unaccustomed to a hosted buyer concept — were still being signed up.

That’s a far cry from the fifth-annual Inkjet Summit slated to be held April 24-26, 2017, once again at the exclusive Ponte Vedra Inn & Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., near Jacksonville.

In fact, total Inkjet Summit attendance has grown so much that the entire Ponte Vedra Inn & Club will be sold out and taken over by participants at this year’s conference.

Co-hosted by NAPCO Media (the publisher of Printing Impressions and its sister title, In-plant Graphics) and nGage Events, pre-qualified printer attendees will spend three days networking and sharing real-life inkjet printing experiences with each other, while enjoying a nonstop educational program of keynotes, user panel discussions, case studies, 1:1 exploratory meetings with sponsors and expert consultant presentations.

Approximately 100 printing company owners, senior-level manufacturing/operations managers and corporate enterprise personnel are expected to attend this year’s invitation-only, hosted event.

The Inkjet Summit is designed for business owners and senior managers who want to better understand how current and future inkjet production printing technology, software and solutions will impact their business and investment strategies. It also provides strategic-level insights into what printing industry leaders should do to improve and optimize their organizations.

The Inkjet Summit provides a unique and valuable experience for attendees to acquire this knowledge in an intimate, highly focused educational and networking event. Pre-qualified attendees meet and learn from the “who’s who” in the inkjet space, as well as hear real-life experiences from their industry peers about the successes and challenges that they encountered when implementing this new technology within their operations.

Aside from the peer-to-peering networking opportunities, senior executives and subject matter experts representing the leading production inkjet press and finishing equipment manufacturers, inkjet paper/consumables suppliers and related software providers will also share relevant information throughout the event. Keynote-level sponsors for Inkjet Summit 2017 include Canon Solutions America, HP, Ricoh and Xerox, in conjunction with a virtual industry who’s who of other production inkjet vendors.

Boardroom-style case studiess given by the sponsors are tailored for the various product application segments to make them relevant.

Designed to educate printer attendees who are actively investigating and pursuing initial or continued investments in cut-sheet and continuous-feed production inkjet printing and related technologies, the Inkjet Summit format combines general, breakout and case study educational sessions with various social networking events to maximize the overall knowledge exchange in order to help attendees make more educated business planning and buying decisions.

Breakout sessions during the summit are broken down based on today’s leading production inkjet applications. These include special breakout sessions and tailored presentations suited for Books and Publishing, which for the first time will include the emerging application demand for inkjet-printed publications and catalogs; Direct Mail; Transaction/Transpromo; and General Commercial printing. New this year will be a separate breakout track designed specifically for in-plant printers.

While the discussion at Inkjet Summit 2017 will be centered on when, not if, rollfed and cut-sheet production inkjet technology will eventually become the de facto industry digital printing process, the knowledge gained during past summits helped to provide inkjet adoption best practices roadmaps —along with detailing several of the pitfalls to avoid — for many past conference attendees.

This year’s event will be no different, even as production inkjet technologies, workflows and applications continue to mature.