On Nov. 13, our CEO Jim Raffel and Project Manager Shelby Sapusek joined Matt Huber, Marketing Premedia Manager at JCPenney, to present “Color Control Myths and Mysteries” at the annual Gravure Publishing and Premedia Conference (GPPC) in Naples, Fla. The panel discussion kicked off the second full day of the conference.
As noted in the GPPC newsletter, the three panelists provided unique perspectives from their respective backgrounds as a production director in a newsroom, a prepress manager and a color technician.
The seven color control myths
The session began with the simple statement: “You can always trust your eyes.” Anyone who’s ever worked on any part of the printing spectrum knows this isn’t always the case. To prove the point, the panel shared a series of optical illusions with attendees. From there, the panel spent the next hour debunking and explaining six other myths concerning concepts such as soft (online or monitor) proof accuracy and metamarism. The image at left displays all seven myths that were covered in the session.
There were two vital points our panel stressed to the audience during the session:
- It’s important to make a commitment to color quality by investing in the right tools and workflow technology. This can come in the form of up-to-date displays and instrumentation such as spectrophotometers.
- Jim Raffel was quoted as saying: We are dealing with “the technology of color versus the feeling of color” and trying to marry the two.
At the end of the day, the panelists joined up again in a special breakout session for attendees to further discuss color management and workflow systems in a one-on-one environment.
It wasn’t all about color
The GPPC isn’t all about color; that was just our topic for our sessions. While we couldn’t participate in all of the sessions during the three-day conference, here are some that stood out for us:
“Energy and the Prospects for Economic Growth” presented by Bud Weinstein, Associate Director of the Maguire Energy Institute
What we learned: The economy is on a little upswing but still has a long way to go. The figures Weinstein shared about the declining housing market were astounding and not in a good way. However, he was able to take a close look at the current economy and the projected results post-election. His presentation was complemented with various charts to further illustrate his points.
“Utilizing Mobile to Collect CRM Data” presented by John Fauller, COO of Snipp Interactive Inc.
What we learned: About 10 percent of all internet activity is accessed by mobile right now. We honestly thought that figure would be higher with the number of users with smart phones these days. There’s also still a lot of fear in using mobile; specifically when it comes to privacy, geolocation and banking access.
Collaboration Through Connection presented by Tom Carroll, EVP Chief Human Resources Officer of RR Donnelley
What we learned: Carroll is known for being an energetic speaker and he didn’t disappoint at this year’s GPPC. During his two-hour talk, we had to really think about how our mobile devices controlled our lives. He asked us to turn on our cell phones and put them on audible for the first 15 minutes of his presentation so that we could listen to the amount of disruption they could cause when calls, reminders, texts, etc. rang through. On the flip side, we then had to turn them completely off for 15 minutes. Several audience members commented on how this actually made them anxious. We discussed how many people kept cell phones by their beds while sleeping and how we set up mobile offices even while on vacation. This all led into a conversation about how we needed to turn it all off sometimes to be able to be innovative and inventive to collaborate in business.
If you attended GPPC this year, please feel free to share your experiences in the comments section. We’d love to continue the conversations!