Cal Poly International Printing Week Event Draws National Participation

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.—Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department held its annual International Printing Week program for four days in January, hosting events such as a lecture series, dedications of new laboratory equipment, a Printing Week banquet, scholarship presentations, a Career Day, and the department's Advisory Board meeting.

International Printing Week commemorates Benjamin Franklin's birthday, his many contributions to society and his advocacy of Freedom of the Press through print.

Industry speakers from around the nation gave talks on design technology, packaging, gravure, digital printing, industry trends, new technologies, Quick Response (QR) codes, and more. Laboratory dedications were for contributions by Dow Jones, Heidelberg, Manugraph DGM, EskoArtwork, Fuji, Hewlett Packard, Kodak, Baldwin Technologies, Xanté, and Goss International.

The Dow Jones & Company Web Printing Laboratory was unveiled, stemming from a $110,000 grant from the Dow Jones Foundation and four added units from Manugraph DGM to a Goss web press (making it an eight-unit press). Baldwin Technologies donated the spray dampening system. Quad Tech provided the automatic register control. And MEGTEC provided the infeed and splicer for the original press. Kodak, Fujifilm and Trelleborg proved the consumables.

Heidelberg was honored for contributing a JDF-compliant POLAR cutter; Xanté for installing an Ilumina Digital Production Press; Hewlett Packard for announcing the pending donation of an Indigo digital web press; and EskoArtwork for the contribution of a Kongsberg XL20 cutting table and the pending installation of an iCut i-XE 10 die cutting system and related software.

The Printing Week banquet was sponsored by EFI, EskoArtwork, Kodak, Ricoh and RR Donnelley. Six wineries from California's CentralCoast contributed wine for the event, held at San Luis Obispo's Embassy Suites hotel.

Industry guru and RIT Professor Emeritus Frank Romano was the banquet speaker and addressed about 100 students, faculty, staff and industry guests. Romano discussed changes impacting print resulting from competing electronic media, as well as how students must prepare for viable graphic communication careers.