2008 Montréal Digital Printing Forum

Building on the success of its digital printing seminars which recently took place in New York and in Paris, INTERQUEST is organizing—in partnership with l’Institut des Communications Graphiques du Québec (ICGQ) and with the support of Québec Imprimerie—a similar seminar in Montréal in the Fall. The Digital Printing Forum will take place October 2, from 9 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. at ICGQ.

The forum, conducted mainly in French, is designed around recent INTERQUEST research into digital printing in the North American market. It is segmented into parts: the morning session will be focused on Digital Book Printing, while the afternoon session will be focused on transactional printing & transpromo as well as direct mail.

Seminar Outline

08:00-09:00 Registration/breakfast

MORNING

On-demand Book Printing

09:00-09:15Welcome/Introduction

09:15-10:00Keynote (in French)

• Michel-Carl Perron, Vice President Production, Chenelière Éducation

10:00-10:45Market Trends

Results of INTERQUEST studies

• Gilles Biscos, President, INTERQUEST Ltd. (in French)

Presentation of the results of the digital book printing market studies recently conducted by INTERQUEST in North America and Europe. Topics analyzed include: market size and growth, most promising sectors and applications, drivers and barriers, technology and market developments, as well as an assessment of the key vendors and their solutions.

10:45-11:15Break/tour display tables

11:15-12:30Measuring the benefits of digital book printing

User presentations & round table (in French)

During this session panelists will present their digital book printing applications and discuss how to measure the benefits of digital print on demand considering not just manufacturing but also warehousing, distribution, and incremental sales. They will also explain how digital print technology (monochrome and color), finishing, and substrate developments are helping them enhance their solutions and expand their applications.

• Martin Cournoyer, General Manager, Transcontinental Métrolitho, Québec Canada
• Robert Legault, Advisor, CPI Group
• Serge Loubier, President, Marquis Imprimeur Inc.

12:30-13:30Lunch/tour display tables

All participants attending the morning sessions and/or the afternoon sessions are invited to the lunch

AFTERNOON

Direct Printing & Direct Mail

01:30-02:15Market trends

Results of INTERQUEST studies

• Toby Cobrin, Director, INTERQUEST Ltd. (in English)

Presentation of the results of The Growth of Digital Printing in Direct Mail: Market Analysis & Forecast, a study published by INTERQUEST in September 2008. This study based on an in-depth survey of leading North American direct mail and marketing companies analyzes: key market trends, the move from offset and pre-printed forms toward digital printing, the impact of the arrival of higher quality high-speed ink jet systems, as well as the evolution of color personalized printing and the issues related to cost and ROI. The presentation will also provide market forecasts and an assessment of the leading players and their solutions.

02:15-03:15Applications, opportunities & challenges

User presentations & round table (in French)

This panel will assemble leading direct mail providers and corporate marketers who will discuss their experience with personalized color printing

• Eric Azara, President, Varibase
• Robert Handfield, President, Maison Roy
• Roger Blanchette, President, Groupe Quadriscan
• Mathieu Péloquin, Vice President, Marketing Product Lines, Sélection du Reader's Digest

03:15-03:30Break/visit sponsors display tables

Transactional Printing & Transpromo

03:30-04:15Market Directions

Results of INTERQUEST studies

• Gilles Biscos, President, INTERQUEST Ltd. (in French)

Presentation of the results of North American Transactional Printing: Market Analysis & Forecast (2007-2012) published by INTERQUEST in June 2008. This new market research study, based on an in-depth survey of leading North American transactional printing operations, updates and expands on the studies published by INTERQUEST in 2004 and 2006 on the same topic. Areas analyzed include: the move from monochrome to highlight and full-color, in-house printing versus outsourcing, the state of electronic delivery and EBPP, and the impact of recent technology developments. The study also provides a detailed analysis of the transactional promotional (tranpromo) market with its opportunities and challenges.

04:15-05:15Applications, opportunities & challenges

User presentations & round table (in French)

Leading service bureaus and user organizations will present their most recent transpromo applications and their perspectives on this hot industry topic.

• Roger Castonguay, President, Synapse.com
• Michel Girardeau, Director Solutions & Business Development, CGI
• Sylvie Laferrière, Project Coordinator, Fonds de solidarité FTQM
• Other speakers TBA

05:15-05:30Conclusions/Wrap up

Éric Azara

Eric Azara is the founder and president of Varibase. After graduating in marketing and business management, Eric Azara—in partnership with a former IBM engineer—started an IT services company. For 15 years he managed this organization and built his expertise in database management. At the end of nineties, Eric Azara added to his responsibilities the management of a prepress firm. This is when he realized the synergy between database management and variable printing technologies to personalize the relationship with customers. As a result, he developed a business plan to leverage these technologies, and in 2001 sold his two companies to create Varibase—a pioneer in one-to-one marketing. In 2007, after a thorough market study he opened a Varibase subsidiary in Montréal where he now lives with his family. Today, Eric Azara heads a group of thirty people specialized in relational marketing, and based in France and Canada.

Gilles Biscos

Gilles Biscos, the founder and President of INTERQUEST, has spent over 25 years in the information processing industry. He has extensive expertise in strategic planning, market research, competitive analysis, and the development of educational and training programs related to digital printing/publishing and document management. Mr. Biscos is the co-author of Digital Printing: The Reference Handbook, published in 1993 and updated in 1998 and 2004. He has spoken at a number of industry conferences and written numerous articles for publication. Mr. Biscos holds a Master of Science degrees in Economics and in Social Psychology.

Toby Cobrin

Toby Cobrin, EDP, is Director for INTERQUEST. She has been involved in the electronic document industry for more than 25 years. Her roles have included technical and marketing positions in a leading document service bureau, technology advisor to the trade association Xplor International, and research analyst for INTERQUEST. Over the past five years she has worked on numerous INTERQUEST studies. Ms. Cobrin has spoken at numerous industry conferences and has contributed articles to leading industry trade journals. Ms. Cobrin holds a Master of Science degree in Business from Columbia University.

Martin Cournoyer

As General Manager, Martin Cournoyer is responsible for the Metrolitho printing facility and over 150 employees. Working in the industry for over 20 years, Mr. Cournoyer has an extensive background in the areas of publishing and print production. Leading the plant’s expansion, Mr. Cournoyer has been paramount in transitioning this plant into a leading facility with advanced book printing technology in terms of print, production and capacity. The Metrolitho printing facility specializes in digital printing, short-run books, perfect bound, hard cover, spiral bound book production. Prior to Transcontinental, Martin Cournoyer worked in Quebecor’s magazine, catalog and flyer division, as well as their production division. He also served as Sales Director at AGFA Products.

Michel Girardeau

Michel Girardeau is Director, Solutions and Business Development for the Document Management Services practice of CGI. He is responsible for the service offering evolution, marketing the services as well as developing major business opportunities. He cumulates more than 25 years of experience in dealing with massive document production technologies and the latest developments in electronic document delivery, archiving and retrieval. For the past 17 years, he has been involved with Xplor International a worldwide association of users and suppliers of the products and services that create, modify, and deliver customized information using a variety of document technologies. Michel is currently serving his fourth two-year term on the Board of Directors of Xplor Canada and served as its President from 2003 to 2006.

Robert Legault

Robert Legault, president of ASI Inc., and Robert Legault International Inc., serves as an advisor to the board of CPI Group, the European leader in monochrome book manufacturing. CPI Group is comprised of 22 printing companies located in five countries and producing two million books per day. Robert Legault, who has been in the industry for over 30 years, managed production at Dominion Blueline, Interweb (which he co-founded) and Quebecor RDP. As Vice-President of Technologies at Quebecor-World from 1993 to 2001, he orchestrated the digital conversion in more than 120 printing operations in 22 countries. He has been associated with CPI since 2001, and for the past two years he has been leading the team, which develop digital tools to improve the supply chain processes.

Mathieu Péloquin

Mathieu Péloquin is Vice President Marketing Product Lines for Reader’s Digest Canada. Since 2004, he is responsible for the promotion and commercialization of all magazines, Reader’s Digest (Canada’s most read magazine), Sélection, Our Canada and the recently launched Best health and More of Our Canada. He is also responsible for the Books, Music and Video product lines. Under his leadership, e-commerce has grown to be the second most important channel after direct mail. Before joining Reader’s Digest in 2001, Mathieu was Vice President and co-founder of Equinox Marketing Services, a call center service bureau now under the Canada Direct Group. In 1998, he received the very prestigious award of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the services category for the Province of Québec. Mathieu is a graduate of l’École des Sciences de la Gestion de l’UQAM and is a Certified Management Accountant.