Graph_Comm 07 set for March 29 in Boston
Print buyer event has new name and expanded focus
PINE’s successful print buyer event over the past two years has a new name and an expanded focus for 2007. Graph_Comm 07 replaces Graphic Communications Day — New England, and the event is being broadened to appeal to media and print specifiers rather than exclusively “buyers.”

Graph_Comm 07 will be held Thursday, March 29 at the Boston Marriott Copley in Copley Square, Boston, in the same location as the 206 show.

This year’s event will include an opening keynote address that will be presented at a sit-down luncheon in the banquet hall one floor above the exhibit and seminar area.

Expanded focus
“We’ve learned that as the marketplace continues to evolve, more people and professionals with varying responsibilities are involved in determining media placements and purchases,” said Joe Venti, the event project manager. “Some people direct the purchase, some people specify what media form and communication channel is best, and still others may have the actual interaction with their service provider. The goal of Graph_Comm 07 is to communicate with all of those individuals and offer them something of value at our event.

“The name change to Graph_Comm 07 is one outcome of broadening the outlook,” Venti said. “Our baby has grown after two years and she needs a new set of clothes.”

Approximately 40 print service providers have signed on as exhibitors for the event, and several others are in the final stages of completing agreements. Adobe is a major event sponsor.

Educational seminars
Educational seminars, along with the exhibit area will form the learning core of day-long event. Adobe will offer a technical track where experienced users who are also instructors will delve into Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign/Acrobat, and Adobe’s Creative Suite to show attendees how to get the very most out of these productivity tools.

There will be separate sessions geared toward improving communication between the vast type of clients who source, direct and procure print and media services — specifiers, creative and graphic designers, marketing and communication managers and department heads, production managers, advertising agency professionals and others — and the print service providers who serve them.

Mailing and postal issues will once again be a seminar focus. Various mailing options, postal rate impact on and requirement changes will be discussed in a seminar setting.

A three-person panel will break down GRACoL — an industry acronym for General Requirements for Applications in Commercial Offset Lithography — and how media and print specifiers can benefit by having a thorough understanding of this set of standards used in offset printing. Panelists are Ron Ellis, Gerry Gerlack and Diane Kennedy.

Joe Marin, who has drawn large crowds as a speaker at PINE’s past print buyer events, will uncover some tips & tricks in creating PDF files that even regular Acrobat users may not know.

Rounding out the seminar track will be a session devoted to the importance of paper and the relevance in graphic arts today of having a higher level of consciousness toward environmental-friendly practices with regard to the use and selection of paper in printed projects.

Participating exhibitors
Among the participating exhibitors as of mid-January were Winthrop Graphic Solutions, Flagship Press, DS Graphics, Bay State Envelope, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, Image 4, Shawmut Printing, J.S. McCarthy, Franklin Printing, Curry Printing, HP Indigo, xpedx, Mohawk Paper, Graphic Imaginations, Lindenmeyr Munroe, B&W Press, W.E. Andrews, an R.R.Donnelley & Sons Co., Adobe, CopTech, Matheson Higgins/Congress Press, FGS, The Journeyman Press, UniGraphic, Inc., Graphic Litho, Litho-Craft, Inc., Saltus Press, RIS the paper house, Ames On Demand, American Printing, Charles River Publishing, Universal Graphix, Metro Credit Union, Reynolds Dewalt, Fulfillment Plus Mailing Solutions, Monadnock Paper Mills, and PageWorks.