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Kodak’s GUA Meeting Is a Winner in Vegas
April 22, 2008

Special Report by Darin Painter, owner of Cleveland-based Writing Matters and editor-in-chief of Graphic Communications World's “Greensheet” newsletter.

In 2000, Kodak generated $10 billion from its traditional film business. This year, it expects to bring in 1/20 of that amount ($500 million) from the segment, said Phil Faraci, the company’s president and COO, during the keynote address of the Kodak’s 2008 Graphic Users Association (GUA) North American Conference. “It’s a good thing we had the insight to change,” he said. “Today, I’m pleased to announce that our major restructuring is over. We have created a new Kodak.” 

The firm, which spent about four years and $400 million reshaping its identity and organizational structure, is now better suited to bring digital technologies to printers seeking high image quality, Faraci said. “When I woke each morning for the last few years, I didn’t know whether I’d spend the day hitting the gas pedal or the brakes—introducing new capabilities, or talking about another restructuring move. That weight is off our shoulders, and everyone in this room should expect more solutions from Kodak as a result.” 

The GUA conference gave Kodak customers the opportunity to learn about those solutions. The event, held April 20-23 at The Wynn in Las Vegas, attracted 314 delegates—a record number that followed a couple years of declining attendance. (Total GUA membership is nearly 6,000, up 11% from this time last year.) 

Much of the event’s content focused on what Kodak will introduce at drupa 2008, including the company’s Stream Inkjet Technology. It enables continuous inkjet printing to expand beyond its core base of transactional printers and into high-volume commercial applications. Kodak will showcase the technology at drupa on its monochrome Stream Concept Printhead, as well as its full-color, high-speed digital Stream Concept Press. 

But the GUA conference session that generated the most buzz was led by Chris Reis, product manager of Web-to-print for Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. He gave attendees a first glance at a new solution under development—Kodak InSite Campaign Manager. Scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009, the tool will enable users to better manage and organize marketing campaigns. It will include a powerful analytical engine to track results, and will provide a framework to consume, cleans, correct and process client data quickly. 

Unlike many other user-group conferences in the print industry, nearly all GUA sessions were led by Kodak product managers and other employees, rather than by Kodak customers talking peer-to-peer. But attendees had plenty of time to exchange ideas and provide feedback to Kodak, including at a session where they told software developers about new features they’d like to have in the company’s Prinergy and InSite workflow tools. 

“This is my first time attending the event, and it’s been worthwhile,” said Jeff Hansen, technical support specialist at Lane Press, Burlington, VT. “Kodak is one of our most significant partners, and it’s valuable to exchange ideas with other people using the same equipment.”

Posted by Lisa Cross on April 22, 2008 | Comments (0)