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Xplor International Announces Annual Conference Event

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Lutz, FL — July 28, 2015: Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association, today announced the dates and location for their 2016 annual conference.

Xploration® 16 will take place April 5-7, 2016 at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida.

Tweet this: @Xplor_Int announces April 5-7 at the Caribe Royale in Orlando for their Xploration 16 conference bit.ly/1InFrA8 #Xplor16

Also known also as The Customer Communications Conference, the two-and-a-half day event will bring together end-users, analysts, consultants, industry experts, and vendors who will share the latest best practices and trends in the customer communications industry.

For anyone involved in the creation, design and/or delivery of customer communications, this is a great event to hear the latest industry trends, best practices and to find solutions.

“Changes in technology and human behavior are rapidly changing not only how we communicate with our customers, but the whole customer experience itself. Xploration® 16 will be about the technologies and changes in human behavior that are driving these changes today and into the future.” – Skip Henk, President/CEO of Xplor International

Interested in speaking at Xploration® 16? Be on the lookout for our Call for Presentations coming soon or contact Xplor International directly.  You can also check the official 2016 Annual Conference page at anytime for the most up-to-date information. 

Questions should be directed to Xplor HQ via email at register@xplor.org or by phone at +1-813-949-6170, between the hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (ET), Monday through Friday.

Vendors interested in being an event exhibitor or sponsor should contact Xplor’s Director of Sales, Deborah Green, at +1-770-444-3845 or via email at deborahgreen1@earthlink.net.

 

About Xplor International

Xplor International is a worldwide, not-for-profit professional association that consists of thousands of users and suppliers of the products and services that create, modify and deliver customized information using a wide variety of document technologies. The association provides educational products and programs for its members and the industry at large through conferences, meetings and annual events. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Connect with Xplor on Facebook  or Twitter.

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk, EDA
Marketing Coordinator
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

Dear Occupant, We Are Raising The Bar!

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If you are old enough to remember receiving direct mail addressed to “Dear Occupant,” you will certainly remember the astonishment and wonder when you received your first piece of “personalized mail” – Dear (insert your name here).
Over time the level of text personalization increased to include things like the company you worked for, the city you lived in, etc., and we all felt connected in some way. We were not just an “occupant” but an individual.

That was the late 80‘s, early 90’s if I recall correctly.

Today, receive a piece of personalized mail and you are typically less than impressed. In fact, you probably may even ignore it unless it is something out of the ordinary, like your name spelled in the sand on a beach, or in the clouds against a blue sky. There is still a WOW factor to the innovative use of personalization. However personalization and the WOW factor have to be relevant. A catchy piece, plus a good offer to the right person, equals a winner for the Brand.

In 1999 Harry Quadracci of Quad Graphics wrote, “We are in the Age of Advertising. Baby Boomers, now in their peak spending years, have a lot of buying power, and there’s going to be a lot of advertising to get that dollar. The best way to harness that buying power will be through properly promoting the brand… and the most effective media for brand promotion will continue to be ink on paper. It’s The Brand, Stupid, it’s The Brand!”

Mr.Quadracci was right in 1999 and remains so today, “it is the brand” and the decision makers of the brands who require results. Sending out 100,000 pieces of direct mail to “Dear (insert your name here), hoping 2-3% produce results is no longer what the brands are looking for or need. Sending out 50,000 innovative pieces, to the right people with the right offer drives double digit results. If you are a printer I am not saying you need to be a “marketeer” – but you do need to understand what your customers may ask you to print. (Everyone familiar with augmented reality?)

So as a printer, what is interactive print? (I personally believe it could be the Renaissance of direct mail) What do the brands need? How can you be part of the opportunity?

There is a great deal of opportunity for those who get it. To get it you need to reach out to different places and spheres of influences.

I invite you to add Xplor to your sphere of influences and join us for Xploration 14, March 25-27th in Orlando Florida.

Visit http://xplor.org/upcoming-events/2014-annual-conference

Is The Tablet Becoming a Small Boat Anchor?

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Is The Tablet Becoming a Small Boat Anchor? (That floats intermittently)

Last week the motherboard went out on my PC which caused the usual chaos and scrambling to find a new PC, load programs, backup files, etc. It was painful, but it too has passed.

While researching what my next PC would be I ran across several articles on the demise of the PC. In fact one of the original architects of the IBM PC team states, “Personal Computers Becoming Obsolete.” He himself has chucked his PC for a tablet.

Read article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2011/08/11/personal-computers-becoming-obsolete-says-ibm-pc-architect/

The IBM 3270

In reading this article and others that talk about applications and data being in the magical “cloud”, I started to wonder if we are setting ourselves up for failure.

IBM_3270Not many people remember the IBM 3270, a dumb terminal that hooked up directly to a mainframe. It had no standalone computing capabilities and if the mainframe was down every 3270 hooked to it was also. In large companies that could be thousands of terminals.

Imagine what is like when you lose the internet but worse, because you can’t do anything else as there was no Microsoft Office, no applications or documents on the terminal. As a technician once described it to me ”It becomes a boat anchor that floats intermittently”, until the mainframe was back up.

What may the future hold?

You have your “tablet” in hand your applications and documents sitting on the cloud and the cloud suddenly “dissipates”.  It could be a hardware or software failure, a hacker or cyber terrorist but your tablet becomes  a smaller boat anchor (that floats intermittently), until the cloud re-appears.I thought this scenario was a farfetched at one time, I almost felt like some conspiracy guy but with all the stories of hacking and cyber terror that has emerged over the last several months, I am not so sure.

In Florida we have hurricane plans. We prepare to be without electricity for several days. You fill your gas tank, stock up on food and water, get cash from the ATM and if you are really prepared, have a generator. All in preparation for not being able to buy gas, food or get cash because of the loss of the “electricity cloud.”

As we look to empower the cloud by trusting it with all our applications and data are we setting ourselves up for failure? What is the back-up plan? Is my tablet becoming a boat anchor?

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