I had the honor — and pleasant responsibility — of hosting the Public Printer of the United States and his small entourage at the Xerox stand on one afternoon of drupa — and again that evening at a reception for North American members of the Xerox Graphic Arts Premier Partners.

Robert Tapella became the nation’s 25th Public Printer last fall, overseeing one of the largest print buying operations in the world, ordering as many as 1,000 printing jobs a day from private vendors, on behalf of federal agencies. At drupa, his agenda includes investigating the latest digital printing solutions and sustainability initiatives to support his vision for the U.S. Government Printing Office of the future.

We had plenty to show him. One of our longer sessions in the stand was a demonstration of our new web-fed color and black-and-white devices (the Xerox 490/980™ Color Continuous Feed Printing System and the Xerox 650/1300™ Continuous Feed Printing System, respectively) that are good candidates for the books that are his primary product. We had another good conversations in the innovation area, where some of our future technologies are on display.

That evening, his team joined us for drinks and dinner at the Hotel Schnellenburg, a pleasant setting overlooking the Rhine River. About 75 of our top North American customers were there, and many told me they were absolutely thrilled to meet him.

The irony wasn’t lost on us, that our top North American print providers were meeting with one of the leading print buyers in the United States — in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Tom Wetjen
Vice President, Worldwide Graphic Communications Business
Xerox Corporation

Robert Tapella, the Public Printer of the United States, right, and Tom Wetjen of Xerox at the Xerox Premier Partners reception at the Hotel Schnellenburg during drupa.