Idea Exchange Centers

The Print Services & Distribution Association has set up Idea Exchange Centers throughout the trade show floor to provide value-added educational sessions to our event attendees.  These sessions are open to all registrants. Speakers are forthcoming, please check back soon.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24
1:30 - 2:30 pm
Credit Card Processing
Credit card orders will increase your revenue stream. Join this session to better understand the best credit card processing deals for small businesses and how to calculate your real processing costs versus the cost of lost opportunity for not accepting credit card transactions.

Proactive Sales Management
Want to be a better sales coach? Join us and learn sales tactics to better manage your team, drive their performance, and what motivates the latest generation of sales representatives.

How to Sell Series: The Healthcare Market
The How to Sell Series will dissect selling techniques for different vertical markets. This session will teach you how to successfully penetrate the healthcare market to increase your sales through this distinct vertical.

Operational Costs and Profit Margin Challenges
Small changes can have a big impact on your bottom line. This session will teach you less obvious ways to reduce your operational costs and improve your profit margins. A great session for COOs or other professionals charged with keeping overhead costs in line.

Postal Knowledge for Sales Reps
Timothy S. DiSalvo, vice president of marketing & sales, Applied Business Systems, Inc.
This session was designed to provide sales reps with product specific knowledge that can be shared with their customers. There is a lot of money to be saved and earned if you know the paths through and around the new postal regulations. Join this session and get up to speed on the fundamentals.

2:45 - 3:45 pm
Contact Management - ACT! Users
This session will dissect the latest tips and tricks for ACT! users to make certain you are using it to its full potential. Get an understanding of how other distributors use this application to develop sales penetration and to ensure client satisfaction. We'll help you work through the areas that have been the most difficult to implement and enforce, as well as teach you how to surmount the challenge.

The Hows, Whys and Whens of Starting a Blog
Blogs have long been used to provide information to an online audience. But, When used correctly, they can also be very powerful marketing tools for you business. This session will teach you how to create a blog that attracts a following and generates interest among readers, what blogging can mean for your business, where to host your blog and how to get the word out.  We'll discuss the difference between traditional blogging versus Twitter and vlogging.

Tips for Greening Your Office
There is more to greening your office then big ticket items such as solar power, wind power, hybrid delivery trucks that can have a great impact on your bottom. Small changes make big impacts.  Discover how implementing ten, simple action items in your day-to-day can transform your business to an eco-friendly environment...and the PR plug you can get from being eco-aware.

Benefits and Perks for Sales Representatives
An owners only session.
This session will discuss the most cost effective compensation packages for today's sales reps. We will review how the products and accounts they sell may change their compensation mix and overview a mix benefits that will motivate your team.

Lead Generation Through 2009
Generating leads becomes more challenging each year. This session will discuss what technologies are being used to help sift through information and bypass gatekeepers to building up a book of qualified leads. 

4 - 5 pm
How to Make 60% on Promotional Product Orders
Don Sanders, founder, sellpromoproducts.com
This session will focus on the five most neglected points of a selling promotional products: personal visits, follow-up, effective prospecting, setting limits on customers, and showing an appreciation to everyone.  After attending the session, anyone who consistently uses these principals will become a high-volume promotional products salesperson.

Contact Management - Goldmine Users
This session will teach Goldmine users how to evolve their program, integrate it with other applications, and overcome hurdles and obstacles that may make implementing and enforcing Goldmine policies and procedures a challenge.

Online Ordering Systems for Small Distributors
Spend the time to learn how to evaluate, select, and implement a system that is not only right for your business needs today, but will carry your company into the future. This session is designed for small distributorships (less than $4 million in annual sales) and will focus on systems that can be implemented with smaller budgets.

Sales Horror Stories
Join your fellow print distributors in a telling session where they reveal their worst sales nightmare. This session will teach you how to overcome negative sales experiences in order to stay on track and complete the sale.

I Never Dreamed I'd Sell This
Listen to veteran print distributors as they discuss the products and services they never believed they would add to their portfolios which have surprisingly enhanced their businesses and revenues.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25
10 - 11 am
Must See Products
Steve Antkowiak, president, Piedmont Graphics
Hear first-hand from your fellow members what products are being displayed on the show floor that cannot be missed. You will get an insider perspective of what the latest and greatest products are that you need to enhance your business, which new products are being sold by your vendor partners, and how to navigate the Expo floor to find these products to start making money.

The New Pantone GOE System
Pantone recently introduced a new color system that offers variations from the original. This session will teach you the key differences between the two to eliminate confusion and avoid transactional problems.

Keeping Your Website Fresh to Generate Repeat Visitors
Dynamic websites refresh their content on a regular basis to give visitors a reason to check back often. Adding simple embellishments on your home page can create an interaction with your users and even prompt them to make your website their home page. Learn how to add these features to your site and get a better return from your online presence.
Green: The Facts versus the Fallacies
Going green is not just the catch phrase of the decade. This session is designed to dispel the myths behind the green movement and sift through the green-washing to get to the core of what businesses really need to do to make an impact on the environment

How to Specify Commercial Printing
Learn the fundamentals of specifying a typical sheet-fed commercial print job from an expert. This is a great session for those who are new to the order entry for commercial printing and want to know how to accurately detail a client's job to ensure satisfaction.  Walk away with a great check sheet to ensure you don't forget to review the basics when you return to the job.

11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Increase Your Label Sales
Label sales continue to be one of the top growth markets for the printing industry. Learn which product features are continuing to drive this growth, where product applications for these features are typically found, what the future holds for label sales, and new technology issues that are impacting labels.

Using Colomunki Design
Colormunki is the latest solution developed to maintain color quality and accuracy. This all-in-one device captures any color from Pantone PMS and GOE libraries, image libraries, or spot colors from any surface and includes color control functions for calibrating displays, projectors and printers with spot color optimization. Learn how this tool can make your customers' designs perfect from proof to purchase.

How to Sell Series: Retail Market
Willie Brennan, owner, Custom Print Now
The How to Sell Series will dissect selling techniques for different vertical markets. This session will teach you how to successfully penetrate the retail market to increase your sales through this distinct channel.

Secure Rx Pads
Patient safety, security, and insurance issues have been changing the way prescription pads are designed. At this session, you'll learn the latest regulatory changes and updates affecting this product line, security design basics, and individual state requirements.

Designing for Variable: Tips and Tricks to Help You Get the Most of Your Variable Data Campaign
James Lockman, owner, Working Words & Graphics
Exciting mail pieces are often created and simply handed off to a mailing house for labeling. Adding personalization to that mail piece drastically increases the likelihood that the recipient will read the mail, but what if simple personalization isn't enough? This session will delve into the dos and don'ts of designing for variable data. With Adobe Creative Suite and your favorite database application, you can create mail that responds to your data set and increase the return on your investment. You will learn how to set up a data set in Filemaker Pro, export data for use in InDesign and Photoshop, and create a mail piece that responds to the data.

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If you are interested in leading an Idea Exchange Center discussion, please contact Dennis McGarry at 800.336.4641 or via email at dmcgarry@psda.org.