Reward of Reaching The Inkjet Summit

We created a special section in this issue focused on the explosive growth, and industry-wide excitement, surrounding the printing industry’s accelerating shift from offset and toner-based digital output to production inkjet. Heretofore, inkjet adoption has primarily centered around continuous-feed inkjet press installations for high-speed, high-volume applications—but the long-announced wave of cut-sheet inkjet printers starting to enter the marketplace will also become game-changers for more mainstream sheetfed offset and cut-sheet toner digital shops.

Our coverage also provides a perfect lead-in to the third-annual Inkjet Summit, which will be held April 27-29 at the five-star Ponte Vedra Inn & Club located near Jacksonville, FL. Printing Impressions and its sister publication, In-plant Graphics, co-host the event in conjunction with our partner, nGage Events. For those unfamiliar with the Inkjet Summit, it’s a unique, hosted buyer conference that unites senior printing execs—looking to first purchase, or expand existing, inkjet printing capacity—with like-minded industry peers, consultants, and inkjet hardware and software suppliers. Don’t be misled by its upscale Florida resort location, however; the three-day conference is jam-packed with unbiased educational presentations led by top inkjet experts; numerous printer user panels focused around inkjet applications like direct mail, transactional, book and commercial printing; and 1-on-1 and boardroom-style case history meetings.

The page volume growth, large vendor R&D investments and ongoing product advancements surrounding production inkjet printing technology are creating a new wave of industry excitement and optimism. The value proposition of highly personalized, high-speed inkjet printing with quick turnarounds—at far lower total costs of ownership compared to its toner-based digital web and sheetfed printing counterparts—is breathing new life into market segments poised to rebound as marketers, publishers, corporations and traditional print buyers learn more about inkjet’s benefits. It’s now up to our industry to drive home that message. And, the Inkjet Summit is designed to help provide attendees the tools and the inspiration to do just that.