SPECTRUM 2001

On October 28, Nick Patrissi, Chair of the annual SPECTRUM conference opened the conference at the Sheraton El Conquistador Resort in Tucson Arizona.  As expected, this year's industry leadership event had fewer delegates than expected due to the tragic events in September.  However, after careful consideration, the conference planning committee determined that it would be better to hold the event to maintain the 24 years of continuity than to cancel the event.  Those who could attend SPECTRUM, were certainly treated to a program with outstanding content and presenters.  A webcast of portions of the event, SPECTRUM LIVE, was provided for those who could not join us in person. 

Patrissi opened the conference, the "Digital Odyssey-- the Digital Transformation of Print" by focusing on  the idea of transformation.  Certainly September 11 has transformed us all.  It was a time of great loss and great sadness.  But it also saw the rise of a new patriotism and new kinds of heroes.  Patrissi then discussed how GCA has been transformed into IDEAlliance.  IDEAlliance brings together the separate sides of GCA into an organization with a common interest to advance the publishing industry.  Then, of course, Patrissi moved on to discuss some of the innovations we have seen in the digital transformation of print.  SPECTRUM focuses on workflow, production and management for Advertising, Creative, PrePress, Printing, and Publishing.  Patrissi closed by discussing innovations at SPECTRUM 2001, including SPECTRUM LIVE, which is enabling portions of the conference to be webcast to 7 remote locations.

	SPECTRUM Delegates opened the conference by singing GOD BLESS AMERICA, in rememberance of the events on September 11, 2001.x
	Gray Knowlton, Product Manager, Adobe Systems provided the opening vendor keynote, "Creating Valuable Digital Content."  This vendor keynote highlighted the Adobe vision for Network Publishing and focused on advancements in PDF including Tagged PDF and XMP (XML Metadata Platform).

 SPECTRUM 2001 began with tutorials on Saturday, October 27 and ran through Wednesday October 31.  Nick Partrissi, CreoScitex served as conference chair.  Proivencia Dias, Gruner + Jahr USA Publishing served as Vice Chair for the event.  This was the 24th annual gathering of the spectrum of segments in the graphics arts community.  This year, a great deal of focus was given to new standards that are emerging in the graphics arts industry, including:

• XML

• papiNet

• JDF

• JMF

• SNAP

• GRACoL

• SWOP

• ICE

• PRISM

• SPACE XML

• UNADI

• PDFX

Return to TOC