The Graphic Arts
industry is exchanging digital files and learning that there
is more to learn. Learning to better coordinate the well-defined
business relationships, the flow of work, business information,
and clear communication between enterprises partnering in
the digital production process is the next step on the path
to profit and efficiency. Every segment of the industry has
invested millions of dollars on digital technologies in recent
years and the new digital process must be mastered in order
to produce expected benefits.
Who Attends the
SPECTRUM Conference? — Executives and managers with
P&L and production related responsibilities from design
firms, advertising agencies, publishers (magazines, catalogs/direct
mail, newspapers, etc.), printers, and prepress services in
approximately equal numbers. Last year, approximately one
third of the participants were vice presidents, presidents,
or CEOs, one half were managers and supervisors, and the rest
were from sales and marketing. Last year there were 359 registrants.
We expect at least that many attendees this year.
How is the Conference
Agenda Determined? — Approximately 140 IDEAlliance/GCA
SPECTRUM Planning Committee volunteers participate in SPECTRUM
planning. Eighteen planning meetings are held each year, the
first taking place immediately after the close of the previous
year's conference and the rest in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles,
and Minneapolis. Attendee suggestions and comments are reviewed
in detail, and are incorporated into the plans for the conference
provided that they are reasonable requests.
The Planning Committee
representatives gather ideas from their companies, clients,
and peers and make suggestions for the conference. A straw
man agenda is developed from these ideas and is circulated
for review. Most decisions are via consensus, but the New
York group, which includes the conference chair, has the final
say in decisions. This process is long and complex, but it
produces a conference that truly covers national interests.
During this process
speakers and moderators are also suggested, and their names
are circulated with meeting minutes to all Planning Committee
members. The Planning Committee often asks various sources
whether the speaker is a good presenter and knows the material
which pertains to that session. Once a speaker is approved
by the committee, a Planning Committee member is asked to
call the prospective speaker, and confirm their participation
in the conference.
Important
deadlines
August 29: Session
moderator to contact you
Your session moderator
should contact you by this date. If you wish to contact
your moderator please see your cover letter, if attached,
for information. Otherwise contact L.A. Larson/IDEAlliance
at lalarson@idealliance.org.
September 6:
Biographies and Papers due
Biographies:
Please send your 100-word, two- to three-paragraph biographical
sketch to IDEAlliance/GCA. Biographical sketches should
summarize current responsibilities, previous employment,
special industry achievements, and education background.
Email the sketch in text or MSWord format to L.A. Larson
at lalarson@idealliance.org.
Biographies longer than 100 words will be arbitrarily abbreviated.
Papers: Every
speaker is expected to submit a one-page synopsis of their
presentation or main points to IDEAlliance/GCA for printing
in the conference program booklet.
The staff
would appreciate receiving each speaker’s summary on a MS-DOS
diskette as a MS-Word or text file, or by an e-mail message
(same file form) sent to jharvey@media4theworld.com.
If we get an electronic version we can format it nicely
with the rest of the book and include appropriate pagination
and indexing. Please ask your speakers to send their materials
via express delivery — the staff will have little time to
assemble the final document and we will be using much of
that time to key and edit biographies. Please do not fax
summaries or papers — the reproduction will look very unprofessional.
On-site copying
costs are prohibitive. For this reason, IDEAlliance/GCA
will not copy handouts on site. If you miss the deadline
for program materials, we ask that you either bring or ship
your own copies, or take requests for copies of your materials
after your presentation. If you bring handouts with you
please bring at least 375 copies.
September 25:
Hotel Reservations
You must make
your own hotel arrangements. Please remember that the
SPECTRUM group rate and room availability is guaranteed
only until September 25, 2001. After this date rooms
will still be sold at the SPECTRUM rate, but they will only
be available on a first-come-first-served basis.
September 28:
Speaker CDs due to IDEAlliance
Speakers should
submit their presentations in electronic form to IDEAlliance
no later than September 28. Presentations on CD should be
sent to the IDEAlliance offices (address below) or emailed
to jharvey@media4theworld.com.
These presentations will be loaded onto the conference website
for viewing after the conference has concluded.
October 1: Conference
Registration
All moderators
and speakers who plan on attending the conference are required
to register for the conference. The registration fee for
all moderators and speakers is $650.00 (approximately
the cost per attendee for our direct out-of-pocket expenses).
Send your registration with payment to IDEAlliance using
the registration form in the brochure or from our website
at www.gca.org. Please write "Speaker" on the
form to receive the Speaker rate. If you are attending only
the day of your presentation, the registration fee will
be waived. Send the enclosed registration form to IDEAlliance/GCA
and write "Speaker -- one day only" on the form.
October 22: Shipments
due
If you are shipping
materials to the hotel, please time your shipment to arrive
no earlier than Monday, October 22 and no later than Thursday,
October 25. Shipments should be addressed in the following
manner:
The Sheraton
El Conquistador Resort
ATTN:
(your name here)
HOLD
FOR: SPECTRUM 2001
10,000
North Oracle Road
Tucson,
AZ 85737
(Phone:
(520)-544-5000)
Please note that
all shipments addressed to SPECTRUM will be held in the
SPECTRUM conference office at the hotel. If you are looking
for anything that you have shipped please check with the
IDEAlliance staff first, as most packages will have already
been transferred to the office.
Audio visual
Speakers
are asked to use one of the SPECTRUM
2001 PowerPoint templates for their PowerPoint presentations.
Please use one of these backgrounds when preparing your computer
presentation.You will have
the following audio visual equipment available to you:
- Microphone—table top and wired
lavalier
- VHS video player
- LCD projector
- Connection for PC or MAC laptop
- 35mm slide projector—available
only by special request prior to October 1
You are encouraged to present
rather than sit behind a computer. We ask that the session
moderator, facilitator, or SPECTRUM conference staff person
run the computer presentation for the speaker. Upon your arrival
at the conference, please check with your moderator or IDEAlliance
staff to find out who will be running your presentation. At
least 2 hours prior to your session you will
want to test your presentation with whomever will be running
it. Please DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE BREAK IMMEDIATELY
BEFORE YOUR SESSION—by this point it is too late to deal with
any unexpected and serious problems that may arise. We know
this from experience.
