DIGITAL Digest

On Demand Keynote Speakers Set

BOSTON—Details are being firmed up for the 2007 AIIM and On Demand Conferences & Expos, which will bring the event to the Boston Convention & Exposition Center for the first time. The event will run from April 16-19.

Show days will be kicked off by a series of free keynote addresses. On Wednesday, April 18, John Schwarz, CEO of Business Objects, will present “The Parallel Evolution and Convergence of Enterprise Content Management and Business Intelligence.” He will be immediately followed by Jeff Teper, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, Office Business Platform.

“Freakonomics” author Stephen J. Dubner will lead off Thursday, April 19’s keynote addresses. Dubner will illustrate how economics is the study of incentives, or how people get what they want or need.

Additional speakers are still to be announced. For more information, visit www.ondemandexpo.com.

Data Drives Digital Smart Factory

ORLANDO—Just 10 short years ago, the group now known as the Research & Engineering Council of NAPL held the first conference in its Digital Smart Factory series. At that 1997 meeting, the hot topic was CIP3, introduced at Drupa 95 just two years earlier.

In subsequent meetings, vendors, printers and consultants have worked to iron out problems in the evolving software and electronics, and move toward the automation necessary to remain competitive in an age of electronic media.

Last month, the group held its eighth conference in the series. The meeting began with a tour of direct marketing colossus DME, in Daytona Beach, FL. The 11-acre DME campus boasts inbound and outbound call centers, a video studio and several digital presses—providing clients with complete integrated marketing campaigns. As DME Vice President of Creative Strategies Alin Jacobs told the group: “DME is not a printer that does direct mail. It is a direct marketer that happens to do printing.”