Enfocus last month welcomed nearly a thousand graphic arts professionals from around the world to its second annual Virtual Safari online conference. Experts from every facet of the industry spoke on the latest trends and research, while many offered in-depth application tutorials during the free event. Session recordings are now online and available for viewing, for no charge, at: http://virtualsafari.enfocus.com.
Michael Reiher, Enfocus product manager and Virtual Safari producer, says, “Our goal with the Virtual Safari is to bring educational and informative seminars on a variety of topics to anyone in the graphic arts, in a free and open format. With each session being recorded, the Safari is able to live on throughout the year, allowing everyone from owners to operators to come view the sessions and learn about a large range of topics, solutions and products.”
Attendees could attend one, or many, sessions during the week-long event; where presenters, sometimes with panel participants, dug into the latest developments on hot topics such as digital printing; workflow; color management; web to print; finishing; wide-format; digital asset management; and more.
The experts hail from top industry vendor and distributor organizations, including: MediaBeacon, Hewlett Packard, CHILI Publish, MBO America, Ricoh, Ultimate TechnoGraphics, Tribay, Apago, Pilot Marketing, Printware, Amazing Print Tech, XChange US, Prisco Digital, Amazing Print Tech, All Systems Integration, CrossXColor, Standard Finishing Systems, and Aleyant Systems.
Dwight Kelly, president of Apago, says, “The Enfocus Virtual Safari provides a excellent platform to demonstrate our unique solutions for Enfocus Switch. Also, the roster of presenters was quite impressive. Viewers could select from a wide variety of topics from general state of the industry and best practices to very specific information for their vertical market.”
Dave Hultin, Marketing Ideas For Printers, says, “I really appreciate the opportunity to hop on the soapbox and deliver a message to like-minded people (printers). The value of the Virtual Safari is that the audience approaches the event conditioned to learn, and that makes for a strong ongoing dialog. It’s also a big plus to have the prominence of a name like Enfocus standing with our brand.”
One of the new session installments this year turned the spotlight on professors from four of the top universities and colleges for the graphic arts. During this session, the group talked about industry trends and new technologies in the context of what’s most important for graphic arts and visual communication students to know before entering the workforce.
Harvey R. Levenson, Ph. D. and Professor Emeritus,Graphic Communication Department at Cal Poly State University, was one of the moderators. “Our key graphic communication programs are focused on educating students to bring new and critical thinking, an entrepreneurial spirit, contemporary management, technical thinking, and effective communication to our industry,” he says. “The Enfocus Virtual Safari 2.0 was a perfect forum to convey this message to even greater numbers of students.”
Those who may have missed a session, or wish to view one or more of the Virtual Safari 2.0 sessions again, may access the recordings online, at any time, at: http://virtualsafari.enfocus.com.
