Written By Jeff Jacobson
President, Global Graphic Communications
Xerox Corporation
Let’s face it: the graphic communications industry is an exciting business to be in, but a drupa year adds a little extra flair. Like many of you, I am a drupa veteran. We have all walked miles or kilometers within the Messe, ate our share of bratwurst and survived the largest print show in the world.
We’re only the second day into the show and I am already feeling the energy and excitement associated with this event. It was certainly evident during our press conference yesterday, as Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns talked about how our industry continues to evolve and fend off any misconception that print is dead. Print providers are finding new ways to keep print more vital than ever, through high-value pages and applications like photo books and cross-media campaigns.
I’ve noticed already some prevailing trends as I walked the show floor and met with customers and partners:
- It’s hard to escape the influence the cloud can have on a print operation. We are showcasing five cloud solutions in our stand as part of our newly announced Xerox Cloud Consortium, which brings together Xerox Business Innovation Partners dedicated to providing state-of-the-art cloud solutions to our customers.
- Inkjet certainly remains hot. To our part we unveiled the new CiPress™ 325 Production Inkjet System and showcased the CiPress 500 Production Inkjet System in the stand.
- Not to be left out of the party, and also drawing major attention, is Xerox’s announcement in its award-winning iGen platform – the iGen™ 150 Press.
- If you’ll excuse the play on words, customers are looking to finish what they started. An automated finishing process can save time, money and add major value to a print piece. Our new IntegratedPLUS Finishing Solution for Booklets is an automation solution that lets printers produce booklets without the usual bottlenecks.
But that’s just my take. To get perspective on what your peers are talking about at the show check out our digital visualizer and follow conversations on Twitter by using #xeroxdrupa. It’s a great way to get a pulse on what’s hot at any moment during the event.
And if you’re in Düsseldorf let me know what’s catching your attention.
Jeff is a fresh face at Xerox but one with 25 years of graphic communications industry experience.
