Hopefully this past summer represents more than great vacations, and marks an inflection point for our industry from the hunkering-down strategies during the recession to optimism and planning for future opportunities.

The timing is perfect to explore these opportunities as the conference and trade show season starts to heat up. While webinars are a great way to take an intensive look into specific topics, the trade shows allow you to take a deep dive and learn best practices from your peers, explore new technologies and new and exciting business models. Some events are more invested in conference sessions while others focus on the show floor – some do a pretty good job of balancing both.

For example, print providers and application owners alike may consider attending the Document Strategy Forum in Chicago (September 13th – 15^th). This show will help you understand the changing requirements for mission critical business communication – mostly oriented to transaction printing with some multi-channel communications sessions. This event is more conference and less tradeshow and is a good place to network without being overwhelmed.

The favorite in the printing industry is Graph Expo, which is being held October 3^rd through 6^th at the McCormick Place in Chicago. Most of our industry segments are represented at this show, including graphic arts, books, newspapers, direct mail, transaction, display graphics, and labels and packaging. The event has a big conference and a big tradeshow – there is a lot to see and learn across all of these segments.

For a deeper dive into the specialty market, SGIA 10 in Las Vegas might be the right show for you (October 12^th through 15^th). If you want to learn how to produce images that end up on retail floors, vehicles, textiles, ceramics, and bathroom sinks, then this is definitely a must attend show.  If you want to take an even deeper dive into the textile market, perhaps you should attend the IFAI Expo Americas 2010 show in Orlando.

Or, the photography market might be beckoning you. PhotoPlus Expo will be held in NYC (October 28^th – 30^th). This is a perennial favorite for the professional photography industry.

Many of our industry associations also have niche conferences and I suspect that attendance at these events will be much higher than prior years. Often attending these conferences enables discounts on membership and future events and webinars. Supporting these industry associations also tends to pay dividends for our industry. That’s one of the many reasons that Oce supports them. For example, Oce is sponsoring the Pacific Printing and Imaging Association’s fall conference (www.pacprinting.org), and the PINE (www.pine.org) Print Management Conference in Newport, RI (October 16^th – 19^th). Printing Industries of America (PIA) will be hosting their Converge conference (November 6^th – 9^th). This is a good show to explore the latest in new technologies and cross-media trends.

These are just some of the industry events that I’m considering attending. If you haven’t been to any of these events before, I highly encourage you to look into them. For those of you who are regulars, I look forward to reconnecting. I’d also be interested in hearing feedback on these shows and recommendations of others that do a particularly good job on either the educational or tradeshow aspects of the event.

The super-cool fold this week is from Monadnock Paper. It is a beautifully printed piece with very well executed finishing. Take a look.

There was an article in Employee Benefit News last week talking about the challenges that employers and health plans face in trying to communicate the impact of healthcare reform. There is massive confusion among employees about how changes will affect them, and health plans have not reacted effectively to combat this confusion.

Some healthcare organizations have stepped up to the challenge. According to Shawn Connors, president of Hope Health, “You need to accept that, whether you like it or not, you’re somewhat in the publishing business. “ Health plans should be stepping up to the plate with a menu of communications to support employers with explaining coverage, the impact of health reform on coverage and to develop and manage wellness plans that save both the employer and plans money. The EBN article cites some compelling statistics from JD Power on current satisfaction with health plans which underscore the importance of communications.

When health plans don’t provide adequate communications, employers are left to fill in the gaps and are often poorly equipped to do so. In many cases, the employers themselves don’t have a full grasp of all the nuances of their health plan (or plans) and most (like the rest of us) don’t have a clear understanding of how healthcare reform will impact their specific company benefits.

This presents an opportunity for professional communicators to step in and provide solution templates along with consulting support to help health plans and individual employers deliver the necessary series of communications to employees. Succeeding in this market will require developing expertise in the HR and healthcare market, or partnering with someone who is already operating in that space. Several experts are referenced in the article “Fight confusion with communication” and others are referenced on the EBN site.

A highly regulated market going through change where communications provide an opportunity to boost satisfaction and save money seems like a good avenue for business starved printers to pursue. Healthy hunting!

The clock started ticking on May 22, 2009 when the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act was signed by President Obama. It is a landmark piece of legislation that provides American consumers with stronger protection against unfair credit practices than previously imposed by the Federal Reserve under changes to Reg Z and Reg AA. It also gave issuers less time to comply than the Fed: the first date for compliance is this month, only 90 days after the law was passed. Tick. Tick. Tick.

On August 20, 2009 the first provisions of the CARD Act go into effect. By this date, card issuers must have made the changes necessary to ensure that:

• - Cardholders have a minimum of 21 days to pay their bill;
• - Cardholders receive 45 days’ advance notice of significant changes to their card agreements;
• - Notice is provided that cardholders have a right to opt out of significant changes in their account terms, including interest rate and fee increases, as long as they are not more than 60 days overdue on their payments.

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