Addressing the 120 strong crowd, visiting presenter Duncan Hurst, chairman of the UK Higher Education National Working Party for Photocopiers, told delegates that his role as adviser to the project “Getting Value for Money from Printing and Copying Within Higher Education” showed conclusively that in-plant operations can provide not only better service and higher quality for its host organisation, but also provide those services at significant savings compared to outsourcing.

The study found that for many of the usual services provided by an in-plant operation, savings were often greater than 30 per cent, and often much higher than 30 per cent. In-plants could also deliver projects more quickly and at higher quality than an outsourced job if the operation was offered the resources it required.

The constant threat of outsourcing was a major topic of conversation during the conference, which put pressure on in-plants to ensure that their technology base was state-of-the-art and personnel were well trained. In-plants are now required to be as efficient and streamlined as any commercial operation, but are often restricted by host organisation apathy, or even antipathy.

The NIPPA conference also featured a presentation by Francis Reis, from the University of Plymouth, who outlined his organisation’s growth from a staff of ten and turnover of $120,000 per annum to 24 staff and a turnover of nearly $3 million.

Keynote speaker for the conference was Kiwi boxing legend Billy Graham (pictured receiving a cheque from NIPPA for his hometown gym), who turned adversity in childhood into a stellar boxing career and then an international career as a motivational speaker and fitness advisor. Graham provoked the audience to believe that they could do anything they really wanted, and to make the most of every day through commonsense health and fitness regimes.

The second annual NIPPA Print Awards were held at a gala dinner during the conference. These awards are designed to drive in-plant operations to raise the quality bar in both offset and digital domains.

The winners of the awards were:

CREATIVE DESIGN
GOLD – – Unitec Auckland
SILVER – – Wollongong University Print & Distribution
BRONZE – – The Printery, Massey University

OFFSET
GOLD – – USQ Printing Services, Toowoomba
SILVER – – Wollongong University Print & Distribution
BRONZE – – USQ Printing Services, Toowoomba

DIGITAL
GOLD – – Unitec Auckland
SILVER – – The Printery, Massey University
BRONZE – – Macquarie Lighthouse Press, Macquarie University

MULTI-COLOUR SPOT PRINTING
The Printery, Massey University

INKJET
The Printery, Massey University

OUTSTANDING BUSINESS INNOVATION AWARD
BHI Digital Print Services, Box Hill Institute

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO NIPPA
Karen Birch, Unitec Auckland

SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
David Hills Waikato University

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