Xerox held a graphic arts customer event in Rochester, NY. Hosted in the Gil Hatch Center for Customer Innovation, Xerox had about 80 customers and analysts from all over the world attending today’s session to hear thoughts on Xerox technology and to see some new products. The customers were a mix of commercial printers from all over the US and Canada. Sorry for the lack of photos, I was told not to take any this time.

If you haven’t visited, the Gil Hatch Center it is in the heart of Xerox’s Webster, NY campus. The facility is beautiful and at over 100,000 square feet it’s a great place to bring the 1,200+ customers that visit each year. It’s one of the few places you can come to really see all of Xerox’s technology under one roof.

After a wonderful welcome reception at a trendy local art house called Artisan Works, the following day kicked off with a brief welcome from Dale Allen. Peter Muir then spoke to us about opening your mind to new opportunities. He had some great examples of how clever and creative thinking can increase sales. Specifically, he discussed buying a gourmet chocolate bar, which he greatly enjoyed. When he got to the bottom of the treat, he found a coupon that caught his interest.

This coupon brought him to the company’s website and after a bit of poking around, he wound up buying a few things. The result was a sale of 10X the initial cost of that first chocolate bar – all from a simple, well thought out coupon.

There were several other similar less delicious examples but you get it. Being creative and doing things a bit differently can have a profound effect on businesses. Instead of a simple coupon offering a discount on the next candy bar, using technology like QR codes, engaging content, decadent packaging made all the difference in the world.

Xerox has lots of ideas how they can help customers grow their business. This has always been one of the more intriguing things about Xerox. They don’t just sell you the equipment and workflow. They give you ideas and help you figure out ways to grow your business. After all, if your print business grows, everyone benefits. It was no surprise that just about everything we received was customized for each person at the meeting, from my name badge and name printed directly onto my folder containing the collateral from today’s meeting to the my name placard telling me where to sit to the chocolate bar wrapped with a label that also had my name on it. Everything was printed in this building and they were all not-so-subtle examples of the power of print and how Xerox can help.

After Peter, Andrew Copley and Robert Stabler discussed Xerox Graphic Communications strategies. Ink offers great opportunities and Xerox is trying to lead customers into the continued convergence from offset to digital printing.

During the Q/A one customer asked, “When will inkjet move from trans promo and compete more with traditional commercial print?

Robert’s response suggested this will probably occur within the next 3-4 years. “There are some fundamental business issues that need to be addressed with inkjet. It’s very, very application specific today.”

After, Kevin Horey gave us an overview on Xerox’s workflow and it’s tie-in to the graphics process. This was followed by a presentation by XMPie on the benefits of their Web-to-Print solution, which then yielded to Toby Weiss from EFI’s discussion on the power of Fiery print servers.

Later on we were treated to a walk though of the area where they have their presses set up and we received a detailed overview on the different technologies Xerox is providing to their customers, such as ink, toner, solid ink and workflow solutions.

I think these customers got a lot out of this event. There was a lot of networking between attendees; ideas were exchanged, discussions on which technologies they each use and why were happening everywhere. While these customers are already Xerox customers, I would guess most, if not all also rely on other brands. Today they were given an overview of Xerox’s current products and a glimpse at what’s to come. The presentations were short and sweet, yet powerful.

This wasn’t a full-on hard press where they stuffed technical knowledge down your throat. It was more of an overview. I’m sure many of their customers are going home with a very positive feeling about Xerox and their capabilities after this event.