Tuccitto: A brand owner, printer and group of color experts walk into a bar. The bar owner says, “How does a printer’s workflow account for customer expectations and the different ways to manage color?” The answer is the subject of “Color Management: The Methods & the Madness,” right? And when I say “experts,” it might be an understatement: The roster of speakers on all sides of the table is lined with names well-known in the flexographic industry.
Lancelle: You left out the part where the bartender asks, “Why the long face?” But seriously, when you look at this session, the first thing you see are the names “Smiley” and “Samworth.” Is there really anything more to say? Of course, there is more—a whole lot more—because we’re fortunate to have Kim Madigan and Barry Sanel on board to provide their perspectives and, maybe, a “sanity check” to all of this from both a printer and brand owner’s perspective.
What I see coming out of this session for most attendees is a realistic understanding of how to manage color expectations in a real-world environment, and that there are varying options available to achieve the desired result.
“The session chairs have assembled a really strong group of presenters that covers the range from a technical trainer to plate manufacturer to prepress services provider and a printer end user.”
Tuccitto: You could look at “Print Quality Scoring: Friend or Foe?” as a collaboration between humans and machines: Brands, printers and prepress providers looking to a print quality score and using the data that leads to a pass or fail (as well as how far from matching it is) to make improvements. Is this a continuation of the shift from printing as an art to a science? What do the speakers here bring to the conversation?
Lancelle: Again, the focus here is on collaboration. It wasn’t all that long ago when you’d bring up the term “print scoring” to a printer and be met with a roll of the eyes, or worse. This whole concept has evolved and continues to evolve in practice. We’ve reached the point that this isn’t something that’s just being mandated by brand owners as a means of maintaining consistency—printers are actually finding it to be a very useful tool in improving their own operations.
Through the combined speaker slate, this is another session where we’re not just going to hear about the “hows” but also the “whys” in making it all work. Jeff Hall, in particular, has a ton of practical hands-on experience with making this work in the midst of live bullets flying around him. There will be a load of good, practical knowledge laid out during this session. Dan Uress has put together a really strong group of presenters here.
Tuccitto: The intersection of technology and emotion. The intersection of design and manufacturing. The intersection of the aesthetic and the technical. In “Promoting Success at the Intersection of Technology & Emotion,” Haney’s namesake Dan Haney wraps up Virtual Fall Conference 2020 with an examination of how these often-conflicting ideas can be collaborative instead of at odds with each other.
Lancelle: Dan Haney is another dynamic speaker who is very passionate about his company and what it does. This presentation really should be of great interest on so many levels of our industry. Taking an idea from the concept stage and transforming it into a real viable product, all while factoring in and accounting for both the emotional and practical pieces of a new design launch—There’s got to be a great story there.
There’s going to be so much information offered here that many of us in the industry seldom even think about or may often take for granted as it relates to our own little pieces of the whole jigsaw puzzle. I look at it as, you’re never too old or experienced to learn something new. I can’t wait to attend this session.
The Exhibit
Tuccitto: Person-to-person interaction is a hallmark of a traditional Fall Conference’s Tabletop Exhibit. How does the Virtual Exhibit at Virtual Fall Conference 2020 transition the in-person event to a virtual environment?
Lancelle: You’re right, my friend. I mean, how have we always thought of exhibitions and trade shows? The opportunity for one-on-one social interaction, right? That won’t be the same this year, and that stinks, but that doesn’t mean the virtual interaction experience can’t still be rewarding and, maybe in some ways, even better. It’s certainly going to be different, but I’m hoping both exhibitors and attendees will approach it with an open mind.
And technology is what makes it all possible. Attendees will still have the opportunity to interact person-to-person with exhibitors. They’ll still be able to view product demos, get pricing information, hear testimonials and see examples—everything they can normally do. There’s even a means for attendees to get some of those neat promotional giveaways that exhibitors often hand out.
Again, it will be a different experience, but different doesn’t mean less.
“…we’re really trying to bring the best of both worlds to the table in combining virtual presentations with in-hand print samples.”
Tuccitto: In a lot of ways, that virtual environment improves on the in-person experience. What are they?
Lancelle: When we started talking about the concept of a Virtual Exhibit, my first reaction was that I’m really going to miss the one-to-one interaction with exhibitors. But then I remembered that, more often than not when I attend Fall Conference’s Tabletop Exhibit, I end up running out of time and quite often never get to several of the booths I had intended to visit.
This virtual format provides attendees with the opportunity to select who they want to speak with, when they want to get together and for how long. From an information gathering perspective, with the tools that are available, this format really should prove to be an improvement over the in-person experience. And I never thought I would say that.
Tuccitto: What’s the benefit of enabling attendees to visit the Virtual Exhibit not only during Virtual Fall Conference 2020 but also for seven days after the event ends?
Lancelle: It opens up the window for attendees to gain exposure to the exhibitors. If you are checking out a particular product or technology, and then want to conduct a compare and contrast against alternative or competing products, this window provides the opportunity to more thoroughly research things, go back and ask further questions and get additional information if you need it.