The company looks to flex its creative muscles and its technology for a good cause at this year’s conference.
One thing you can count on at PRINT 18 is that Konica Minolta will have one of the most creative exhibits on the floor. That was certainly the case last year when its coffee café provided attendees a compelling reason to drop in and sample the company’s technology and output while enjoying a cappuccino. By all accounts, the creative marketing minds at Konica Minolta Business Solutions (KMBS) U.S.A., Inc., are about to top themselves at this year’s conference with a compelling theme and a great cause””Books for Kids Foundation
An organization that promotes literacy among children with a special emphasis on low-income and at-risk preschool-aged children, Books for Kids Foundation, according to its website, creates libraries, donates books, and implements literacy programs to develop the critical early foundation and skills which young children need to be successful in life. As part of Konica Minolta’s Books for Kids spotlight at PRINT 18, the company will invite attendees to participate by coloring a large wall in its booth.
“For every person that colors a portion of the wall, we’ll make a donation to Books for Kids,” said Michael Perna, marketing manager for KMBS.
The company will also be printing onsite and giving attendees a children’s book by Dr. Stephanie Kerr who works for KMBS in its education department.
In addition, Konica Minolta will showcase its technology and capabilities with a variety of themed displays, including a Paris hotel theme that will highlight the features and benefits””including color quality and ability to print textures””of its production machines such as the MGI device. Some of the bright colored graphics from the booth will be featured in a series of ads in printing trade publications leading up to the show to entice print providers to visit the Konica Minolta booth.
An abundance of other production print technology from Konica Minolta is also slated to be on display at PRINT 18, including the debut of an array of new technologies as well as its previously released AccurioLabel 190, a toner-based digital label press with a new winder/unwinder from GM. Attendees will also be able to see a demo of the inkjet-based Precision Label Series along with finishers for both label machines.
Dino Pagliarello, KMBS vice president, product marketing and planning, reports that the WebJet 100D, a high-speed, continuous-feed aqueous inkjet press, will be shown for the first time as part of the Konica Minolta portfolio. This is the result of a three-way, marketing, distribution and servicing partnership with SuperWeb and Memjet. The WebJet 100D provides what Pagliarello says is tremendous speed and excellent image quality for transactional printing.
In the decorative ink space, the company will display the MGI devices, including the EVO 75, which was shown last year.
“They’re an important partner for us because we have part ownership in MGI,” stated Pagliarello.
Most of the company’s production color and black & white devices, including the C6100 Series and C3080 Series and the 6136 black & white production printer will also be on display at PRINT 18. Pagliarello is particularly excited about the AccurioWide 160, a Konica Minolta developed UV wide-format hybrid device representing the company’s initial entry into the wide-format space with its own internally developed inkjet print head technology.
“We are developing it under the KM brand and making it available for the first time in public,” reported Pagliarello. “There’s going to be a good buzz at the show that we’re getting into the wide format business under our own brand. A lot of development time went into that and the whole team has been involved in that for the last year and a half. It uses KM technology such as our printheads and we believe it has the best image quality in the industry in that category.”
Attendees can also view sample output from the previously released KM-1 inkjet press. And because Konica Minolta is committed to the production space with a full lineup of products, there will also be demonstrations of its production print software to complement the hardware.
While Konica Minolta is primarily targeting print providers at the conference, they are wide open to educating traditional office technology dealers and resellers about the opportunities the many technologies they are showing can provide to them.
“One of the main themes for where we’re heading as a company is that we are building products that are going to be more profitable for a dealer and allow them to move into different areas and different markets, and we’re building equipment where there’s higher profitability whether it’s marks on paper or any other general substrate,” concluded Pagliarello.
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