My Trip to AIIM/On Demand – An Adventure
(Click on the image above to see the AIIM/On Demand slide show.)
Just two weeks ago, I got back from AIIM/On Demand 2009, held in Philadelphia. It was an intense few days!
For those who’ve never attended, the focus of the co-located events is on document and data management on the AIIM side (the blue aisles in the expo hall) and document production, primarily on digital printers and presses, and related technology on the On Demand side (the red aisles in the expo hall).
Travel from Seattle to Philadelphia is iffy on the best of days, and it was NOT one of the best days when we arrived – finally. Between maintenance issues, storms, and the need to refuel, it took us more than twice the usual time to get from one coast to the other.
Travel aside, there is good news! It’s possible to get “real food” at the Reading Terminal Market across the street from the Pennsylvania Convention Center. No need to subsist on expo food; in fact, we discovered an excellent vegetarian restaurant not far from the Center – New Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant. Read about their foray into social marketing; it’s not for techies any more!
Going into the event – after talking to exhibitors and prospective attendees – I had lowered my expectations considerably. Influenced by photos of an event held in early March where the aisles were empty and keynote presentations were attended by a handful, I was prepared to be underwhelmed.
AIIM/On Demand exceeded my expectations, and – it turns out – the expectations of a lot of others in the house. While attendance was down, those who did come were there intending to network, research, and learn.
Lightweight Booths
The exposition had an entirely new look this year, and it I don’t think it was intentional. There were a lot of familiar vendors missing and those who were on the floor generally had scaled back on square footage, booth complexity, staff, or all three.
Xerox, for example, had a very generous space, but none of the “architecture” that usually surrounds their displays. The booth was open, spacious, and bordered by a long fabric banner. Minimal equipment was in place.
MindFire scaled down their booth size and cut booth staff to one-third that originally planned. The exhibit consisted of a few tables and stools for demos and a couple of comfortable sofas for conversations with prospects. According to Joe Manos, EVP Sales, it saved the company nearly $25,000 in shipping, drayage, travel, and lodging costs, and prospects were pleased to have concentrated time for discussion.
I expect that we will see tradeshow exhibits get lighter and smaller in the future. Exhibitors may have learned that all the razzle dazzle isn’t necessary and that a place for good conversation and great demonstrations may be more effective.
Keynotes – The Best Ones Were on the “Blue” Side
OnDemand keynotes were given by Mary Lee Schneider, RR Donnelley; Charlie Pesko, InfoTrends; and Dr. Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox. While all three gave informative presentations, none of them spent much time talking about “bleeding edge technology.”
The AIIM keynotes pushed out to the edge, to the “clouds” so to speak. For example, Andrew Lippman, MIT Media Lab, explored social networking and mobile communication. The boundaries between work and home are disappearing with our use of mobile devices and social media.
Lippman said, “Social networks are important because they break the notion of work and play.” Man is a social animal, we’ve always had social networks, they are just becoming virtual too. Social media simply provide new ways to communicate, using applications like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
There is one problem: there is still a large number of people who continue to use traditional communication methods and email is as much online as they get. We can’t ignore social networking applications, they are giving us new ways to communicate; at the same time, we must communicate with those who are offline.
In a follow-on keynote, Rishi Chandra, Product Manager Google Enterprise, talked about Google Apps and how they have have “grown up.” Delivered as a set of hosted business applications, consumer technologies like Gmail, Google Talk, Google Docs and YouTube have been bundled for the enterprise. Google can serve them from the “cloud” for access anywhere and anytime.
The apps have been upgraded to be more power and to have higher quality. Google hosts them and enterprises don’t have to install or maintain them; access is with a standard web browser. Because enterprises have higher expectations, Google has integrated more functionality, more security, and more control.
Wherever you are, you have secure access to information; multiple people can collaborate from multiple locations. Rather than invest in IT equipment and software that is constantly needing updating, your company can put its money into generating revenue and let Google take care of the back end.
Up Close and Personal
I took the opportunity to speak with a number of printers in one-on-one interviews and explored issues in education with folks from RIT, Clemson, and Temple University. Here are links to a few of the interviews already published.
- mine Magazine – Me, Me, Me, Mine, All Mine! An interview with Val DiGiacinto, VP Sales, from The Ace Group, the company that is handling the production of mine magazine.
- Associates Graphics Services – Green AND Profitable: At On Demand Expo, Dave Zamorski, COO at AGS, and I chatted about taking his company green. Can a company be green and profitable?
- Marketing Converts Operations to a New Way of Thinking : Dave Zamorski will tell you that he’s NOT a marketing guy; he’s operations. In fact, he mostly doesn’t believe that the marketing programs his staff recommends will work.
- Don’t Have Be Big to Be Green – Ritter’s Printing: Ritter’s Printing, Ft. Lauderdale FL, is small but feisty. Of the nearly 25 people on staff, 7 are family – immediate or married – giving the company a very different face and working relationship.
- Green Gleanings from OnDemand: NewSoft America, the US subsidiary of NewSoft Technology, Taiwan, has a handy solution for both PC and Mac users.
There will be more coming! Watch Your Nickel’s Worth, my Business Strategies Etc. blog, and WhatTheyThink Going Green, where I spend the rest of my time.
