PODi powers into Melbourne

150 attendees made their way to Melbourne for the annual two-day PODi forum this week. Heather Murphy was there to witness the latest news in digital print and marketing.

After PODi's Australian debut in Sydney last year, Garry Knespal, general manager of PODi, decided to move the venue to Melbourne for 2008. Knespal described the show, which ran from 23-24 September as positive for both audience and speakers.

"We're delighted with both the content and quality of the presentations and feedback from the 150-plus attendees has been positive," he said.

"The number of case studies at the Melbourne event and real live stories of relevant digital print marketing has exceeded expectations."

Hess champions the true colours of digital print
Kodak's Judi Hess was one of the presenters at the PODi AppForum 08 this week during her flying visit to Australia. The Kodak executive said that selling automated marketing solutions could drive the take-up of print in a "flat" print market. 

"The market is challenging," said Hess, (pictured) head of enterprise solutions in the Graphic Communications Group and a vice president of the corporation. "I don't think any one out there is having an easy time. But that's why we're in the printing industry - we're made of tougher metal than other people."

She advised that as service providers to marketers, digital printers need to improve their measurement so they can deliver quantifiable results to their clients. "We're not doing measurement well. These are the problems we need to solve," she said.

Hess also highlighted recent work the Graphic Communications Group has been doing on colour management, including a pioneering new ColorFlow technology. "Colour is definitely a pain point," she added, relating her experience visiting Kodak clients in Melbourne who told her that because of colour management issues they often ended up losing money on short-run jobs because their customers were often unhappy with the colour output.

"We can do better than that, as an industry. And we will do better than that."

There was a strong direct marketing flavour to many of the PODi presentations. A session on trends in digital printing presented by Fuji Xerox's Brett Maishman looked at hybrid offset/digital marketing collateral. HP's Alan Tan demonstrated how photo books had exploded in popularity in the previous year. 

David Erlandson, general manager of PODi USA, demonstrated how digital printers should be increasing their prices to charge customers not for the cost of production of products, but for the value they give the customer. He proposed a model of pricing based on the return on marketing investment, rather than a cost-plus pricing.

Other notable presenters include Michael Durie, Australia Post; Print 21 contributor, Peter Barnet and Eliot Harper, production workflow marketing manage, Fuji Xerox.