Below, Catherine Fiasconaro observes that the crowd at this year's On Demand Conference & Exposition was lighter than in the past; that even "at prime lunch hour, the show floor food courts were nowhere near capacity."

Okay, Catherine; I confess. I think I might be the person to blame for that excess food court capacity - at least on Wednesday, March 5. That's when 70 Xerox Premier Partners, special guests and Xerox executives spent their lunch-hour (below) up on the second level of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center with industry thought leader Margie Dana (below left) and me.

Boston Power Hour: Billed as the "Xerox Premier Partners Boston Power Hour," I asked the founder of Print Buyers International and Boston Print Buyers to meet with our members for an informative and fun lunch 'n learn session at On Demand. Margie talked about the hottest print buying trends for the coming year and she dispensed some solid print buying advice. Like Boston Red Sox sluggers Manny Ramirez and David "Big Papi" Ortiz, Margie belted a tape-measure homer with the crowd.

What's Hot: Briefly, here's what Margie told members of Xerox's global affinity network of 700 members are three of the hottest topics among the influential print buyers she serves:

• Digital Printing Presses and Variable Data Publishing Software - They're very eager to learn more about both of these inter-related printing tools and are looking to you as a key source of up-to-date information and expert insight. "Give them what they're asking for: more knowledge on these two, timely topics - including Web-to-Print solutions," Margie says.

• Multi-Channel Marketing - They want to know more about how these campaigns work and have these common questions: Who does what? Can one firm do it all? How are campaigns structured? How is pricing determined?

• Sustainability - They want your help to: (1) better understand the "green" issues, including what all of the acronyms stand for; (2) sort out whether digital is greener than offset; and (3) explain to their clients what you're doing to comply with various environmental certifications and other mandates.
  

Print Buying Power-Houses: According to Margie, there are 23,000 full-time print buyers in the United States who purchase half of all of the print and packaging. She also says there's an additional 92,000 buyers involved to varying degrees, with such titles as: Director of Marketing, Director of Brand Development, Director of Corporate Communications, Creative Director, Graphic Designer, Print Production Consultant and Publishing Advisor. Now, that's a ton of print buying power and 115,000 good reasons to closely work with this influential group of seasoned industry professionals.

We, all, hope to see bigger crowds at next year's On Demand, when it moves back to the City of Brotherly Love, March 30 to April 2. Hey, anybody want to join us for lunch? Maybe we'll serve some Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches next year!

Bob Wagner, Vice President
Xerox Creative Services Business
and Premier Partners Program