Today is K3-DAY, the third day of a series of Digital Printing Solutions Innovations Days here in the demo center at La Hulpe in Belgium.

'Achtung Baby' was the 7th album of the Irish rockband U2. You'll ask: what does this have to do with the DPS Innovation Days? Well U2 made this album after a lot of thinking and changing. It's also an album in which much more digital technology was used than in their previous work.

Hence the link to our event which is the result of a lot of brain storming, planning, organizing and with a bigger digital portfolio than ever.

The 80+ customers today were welcomed by Ursula Voss-Eiden, Regional Marketing Manager Germany and Reinhold Frech, DPS Manager Germany

After an overview presentation of our DPS solutions, a detailed presentation was given on Kodak's workflow solutions by Oliver Markgraf.

As the last session before lunch, we also got some insightful customer presentations from Mr. Udo Gilgert, Bauer Druck, Mr. Markus Stricker, MSP and Mr. Peter Dehm, T-Systems.



An important aspect of our event are our partners: Hunkeler, Müller Martini, Lasermax, Sappi, Ziegler, UPM, Kanzan, M-real, CVG and GMC. They not only support is with equipment, SW and paper, but also with their knowledge.

As such we've a true knowledge center here during the DPS Innovation Days at the service of our customers when they've specific questions on these topics.

Today is K2-DAY, the second day of a series of Digital Printing Solutions Innovations Days here in the demo center at La Hulpe in Belgium.



'Aux Armes' was the battle cry of the scores of French civilians during the French Revolution. In a way there were quite some similarities: we were swarmed by more than 50 French customers today all wanting to see Kodak's revolutionary and innovative DPS solutions.

The customers were welcomed by Florence Maurice, Managing Director France and Dominique Settbon, Sales Director Digital Printing France.

After an overview presentation of our DPS solutions, a detailed presentation was given on Kodak's workflow solutions.



We also got some very interesting customer presentations by Mr. Thomas Drelon, from STIPA and Mr. Jean-Paul Serneels on behalf of Speos.

In the afternoon the demo was hot and hectic. The 50+ French customers were split in 5 groups that rotated through the demo and the different Kodak solutions. Demonstrators and presenters gave it their best, not once but yes, 5 times in a row!



At the end of the day after coffee, fruit juice and some last interactive chats, the French group got on the bus to Gare du Midi in Brussels from where the TGV (High Speed Train) will bring them in +/- 1 hr safely back to Paris and beyond.

Day 2 was a busy day with an excellent turn-out.

Several French customers told us we should do this more often ... They like the content, format and interactivity of the event!

Today is K-DAY, the first day of a series of Digital Printing Solutions Innovations Days here in the demo center at La Hulpe in Belgium.

Crisis or no crisis, early wake-up to catch the flight, 'stripping' for security at the airport, doing the Gordel (=Flemish for the périférique around Brussels)... still 20 Spanish prospects made it to our first Day of the Kodak EAMER DPS Innovation Days.

The customers were welcomed by Giuliano Bianchet, Country Manager Iberia and Manu Cortizo, IPS Sales Director Iberia.  After an overview presentation of our solutions, the customers could enjoy a very nice finger buffet and some talks with each other, Kodak people and ... several Kodak partner companies that were present too.

Having both filled their stomach and their minds with food for thought, it was time for some hands-on work in the demo where they were presented with our different DPS solutions.

In the demo at La Hulpe they saw a unique line up of Kodak DPS solutions. In the EPS section we've the brand new Digimaster EX300 for BW applications. We also have the M700 NexPress for mid volume, as well as the NexPress 2500 with Dimensional Ink and the new NexPress SE3600.

In the IPS section we've a VL2000 with Hunkeler unwinder and rewinder as well as the new 700 Print Manager.

Fort the first time we also have Stream technology here in the demo with the Prosper S10 BW PrintHead.  Customers get at each solution a short presentation and can witness live demos, and ask questions.  Later today Kodak will invite them for a Dinner here in Brussels at the Atomium.

So far a good start for Day One.

At the Hunkeler Innovation Days here in Lucerne there was also a conference afternoon organized by DoXnet, to a certain extent the German version of the Xplor organization. At this conference, Kodak's Thomas Wimmer made a much appreciated presentation, titled 'Don't you forget about your existing customers in times of difficult market situations'.



As marketers we all know the Ansoff marketing matrix with the defined 4 quadrants: existing customers-existing applications (market penetration), existing customers-new applications (product development), new customers-existing applications (market development), new customers-new applications (diversification). All wise people know that you should start in the first quadrant and gradually work your way through the other quadrants, simply because dealing with existing customers is much cheaper and easier. Strangely enough most marketing budget these days seems to go to activities in the fourth quadrant: new customers with new applications.

Thomas Wimmer showed in his presentation a few examples of the impact of attrition of a customer base in mobile phone telecommunication. His point was that instead of always pouring gigantic budgets into acquiring always new customers, companies should also invest some money in retaining existing ones. The customer life cycle model with all its' derived activities is a good way of planning this. Digital printing and VDP are essential tools to create these activities.

At the end of the conference, we got a true performance by a certain Markus Hofmann, a specialist in training people to have a better memory. In a dazzling show of 90 minutes he trained an audience of well over 400 people to remember the last 10 US presidents, a 10 digit telephone number, the names of 8 people, etc... The most impactful trick was how to train sales people to remember a list of core values of a company by just looking at the face of their customers. In a way I found we had come full circle: Thomas Wimmer telling us not to forget about our customers and Markus Hofmann teaching us how to remember their names, phone numbers and our sales pitch. Truly an inspiring afternoon here in Lucerne.

Grüezi mittenand aus Luzern (hi to everyone from Lucerne)

If you're a veteran marketer, I'm sure you'll recognize this: the discussion about the value of tradeshows in your marketing mix. Are they truly worth all the effort and your valuable marketing dollars or euros?

This very fundamental question is in today's recession even more gripping than ever. But if you decide not to do tradeshows, how will you engage your customers effectively and how will you compensate for the lost sales opportunities, because let's not forget in the graphic arts industry a lot of sales are still generated by tradeshows...

The answer seems to come from Switzerland, from a company you would not associate with marketing, but rather with finishing machines. That company is named Hunkeler. What started out several years ago as a small open house event of a supplier of finishing machines, has grown of the past few year to a 4 day event in the Lucerne Messe, with over 4000 visitors of all corners of the earth with all the major vendors of digital printing equipment participating.

Now you might be inclined to say: 'so what?' But Hunkeler has found this unique balance between having an industrial look and feel, combined with an operational excellence that you could only expect from the Swiss and still a scale of operation with the warmth of a family type organization. That's the true secret of the Hunkeler Innovation Days and why they attract experts of all over the world to come and visit. All visitors are experts in their fields. No tire kickers nor brochure hunters, but production people, owners, managers, all here to get updates on the latest technological solutions in digital printing and finishing. As such the Hunkeler Innovation Days has become what people call in German language: Experten Messen, tradeshows for the experts.

This Hunkeler Innovation Days from 16-19th of February, will be my 3rd event and I cannot wait to talk to people there.

Grüezi mittenand aus Luzern (hi to everyone from Lucerne)