Emerge Conference 2010

Every once in a while, there are perks to working in this business, and last week, I was fortunate enough to experience one of them. I was invited to attend the second annual Emerge Conference put on by Consolidated Graphics. Yes, you heard me correctly, attending a conference was definitely a perk!

I was invited as a guest of Tewell Warren Printing, here in Denver, who is one of the 70 printers in the Consolidated Graphics (CGX) network. I was just one of the 750+ attendees that pretty much took over the Marriott Rivercenter hotel in San Antonio, Texas on April 21st and 22nd. The guest list was a combination of CGX staff, sales reps from the printers within the CGX network of printers and their clients (for example, me).

This was the most impressive conference that I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending…the speakers, the graphics, the food…were all amazing. Throughout the two day conference, I listened to some inspirational keynote speakers and attended 10 different break out sessions that covered topics from printing and unique coatings to marketing and social media.

Yes, we discussed social media at a printer conference. Consolidated Graphics realizes that times are changing and that printers need to evolve in order to keep up. We discussed that the future of printing (and yes, there is a future) lies in highly personalized campaigns that integrate on demand printing into cross media campaigns.

Actually, all of the conference attendees got a chance to experience a cross media campaign at work through the campaign for the emerge conference. It was an awesome experience. Leading up to the event, I received several personalized mailings that had my name, specific flight information and other details on them with a link to my own personal URL (or PURL) that was customized just for me! Upon landing in San Antonio, I turned my phone back on and found a text message from the emerge staff letting me know that greeters would be waiting for me at baggage claim to direct me to the transportation to the hotel. Once at the hotel, I was presented with a bound booklet that included my specific itinerary of the breakout sessions that I signed up for. It was so great to be the audience for a cross media campaign and has my mind spinning with ideas for how we can recommend something like this for our clients.

Another thing I was extremely impressed with was the overall branding of the emerge conference. As a brand strategy company, this is something that I always pay attention to and boy, did emerge grab my attention! In addition to the 5 or so branded mailings and my branded PURL, the branding at the hotel took my breath away. Check out some of my photos.

Whether you took the escalator or the elevator, you couldn’t help but know what conference was in town! Even the hotel key cards and sleeves were branded with the emerge conference look and feel!

Stay tuned for another fun blog post about the Texas-themed fun we had after the learning was over. (HINT: I tried my hand at roping a calf. Seriously.)