By Doug Johnson, Owner & Founder, RedSage Group & Member of The 7 Deadly Sinners

Print Audit’s quest to organize a new conference in this mature printing and imaging industry defies logic at first.  Attendance at industry conferences is way down from ten years ago.  The number of conferences held during the calendar year are down as well.  What’s behind this bold (or maybe naïve) attempt to add a high caliber conference to a mature industry that, at times, just seems burned out on conferences as a whole?  Have the folks at Print Audit been playing too much Prince on their iPods?

Or, is it possible to create a new type of conference in a maturing market?  One where audience participation is the norm and not the exception, and where strategy is discussed and debated, instead of the steady stream of hour long monologues that have most of the audience on their smartphones, checking in with the office back home.  A conference where sponsors are there to actually participate in the discussions and gain insights on market strategies that affect their product and solution offerings, and not feedback on product and solution functionality.  If it IS possible, Print Audit is checking all of the boxes necessary to test the hypothesis.

Here’s why I think this new type of conference will not only be successful, but why the industry NEEDS this type of conference at this point in its lifecycle:

In a growing market, often the key to success is to position your company to ride the wave.  Execution and scale are keys.  Conventional wisdom drives the vast, vast majority of suppliers, resellers, and pundits to rally around narrow, if not almost singular, market strategies and execution.

But, when the market matures and multiple disruptive strategic options can be found at every point in the value chain, we need to talk.  And debate.  Agree.  And disagree.  And, ultimately find new paths to success that ensure viability for those willing to embrace new S curves for the future.

The Top 100 Summit is a forum to have that discussion and debate.  Just pulling off this concept in this mature market deserves a tip of the (cowboy) hat.  The results of the Summit could set the tone for how we discuss ideas and strategies in this market for years to come.  Stay tuned.

About the Author:

Doug Johnson is a highly respected business owner, thought leader, and expert with over 30 years technology experience, 15 of those years specific to Managed Print. He is currently the founder and President of RedSage Group.