Kodak drives digital journey back home

Kodak ANZ returns from drupa with a message for the locals: it's all about digital.

Last week, the group commenced its D-Tour seminars which began in Melbourne and finishes up in New Zealand on 17 July.

Attendance at the Sydney show was down slightly in comparison to Melbourne, but officials say there has been strong interest and registration for the remainder of the seminars.

Designed to showcase Kodak's range of new equipment launched at drupa, the seminars were also a way for the company to assert its stance that digital printing is the way of the future.

"We are pushing digital, fuelled by collateral and direct mail," said Steve Venn, GCG chief (pictured). "In the next three-to-five years all commercial printers in ANZ will have some form of digital printing. It won't replace offset but it will be complimentary."

Visitors Chris Ries (pictured below) and Rich Ramirez gave a demonstration of Prinergy Version 5 and its enhancements, as well as Prinergy Digital, designed to work specifically with digital operations.

Also presented was the Digimaster EX300, first announced at drupa. With speeds of 300 ipm (images per minute), the press will be released in 2009.

"It's built to do as much work as you can throw at it," said Steve Peck, solution sales manager, digital printing. "It's a hungry machine."

Also announced were plans for Kodak to appoint an ambassador for environmental affairs. This worldwide initiative is reflective of trends throughout the industry as a whole.

"Australia is very passionate about the environment so we want to be one of the first countries to implement this," Vennn said.

There is no confirmed date for when this position will be effective, but Venn believes that it will be a proactive step towards helping combat factors such as increases to aluminium prices.

Venn said that it was important for Kodak to collaborate and to share this information and developments with those in Australia and New Zealand.

"There's a lot of people who couldn't get to drupa," Venn said, pointing to the fact that at the Sydney show, only three audience members had made the trip to Germany.

"It gives them a feel and a flavour for what Kodak did at drupa."