Rick Scrimger

Laissez les bons temps rouler! Just got back from New Orleans and the 2011 SGIA tradeshow. Attendance was solid at over 16,000 (final numbers to be published soon) and — a stat I have a hard time believing — 35% were 1st time attendees to the show. Having new eyes on everyone’s products is a good thing for everyone including Roland DGA. While people weren’t stamped with a “1st Time Attendee” badge on their forehead (and I’m lobbying for it in the future) it meant that we had a great opportunity to make a first impression on everyone that we met at the show.

Read More

You know it’s fall when trade shows seem to be back-to-back all the way through October, and 2011 is no different. GraphExpo’s been around for some time now, and while it’s changed (see Jim Raffel’s blog about the history of Graph Expo), this year was a good show for us with quite a bit of interest around our VersaUV lineup with a specific interest in what LED-UV curing inks allow you to print on. Packaging and labels were high on the interest list, as well as being able to print onto commercial print stock for proofing. Also at the show, we had the VS-series units showing metallic proofing applications, which really pave the way as a replacement of aging Kodak Approvals out in the field (at a dramatically lower per print cost).

Read More

I recently sat down with Tom Tetreault from Digital Output Magazine at ISA and talked about our outlook on the industry. While only parts of this interview are incorporated into the publication’s “State of the Industry” article series, I thought I’d share the entire interview here

Read More

Every summer we head to Japan for what we affectionately call, Summer Camp. The similarity it has with most summer camps is that it's typically very hot & humid in Japan at this time of the year, about 85 degrees and 85% humidity!

Read More

Attached is a survey that ISA recently distributed that I think you’ll find interesting, and a very positive outlook for the sign business going forward. It was compiled after ISA spoke to 200+ CEO’s or shop managers at the recent 2011 ISA show.

Read More

ISA (International Sign Association) is always a big show for us and this year was no different. Pre-show numbers coming out of the association showed registration significantly up from previous years, with more exhibitors and booth space. We took more space ourselves with a 40x60ft booth and a whole new booth structure that looked fantastic thanks to our awesome marketing department. In addition, we had three exciting new products to talk about: the VersaUV LEJ-640, Roland DG's first roll-to-roll hybrid flatbed; the LEF-12 UV small flatbed, and our new 20" print/cut device called VersaStudio.

Read More

Glengarry Glen Ross, the 1992 movie, featured an all-star cast: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey and Jonathan Pryce. During a memorable scene, Alec Balwin says the famous phrase: “ABC. Always Be Closing.”

Read More

No, this isn't a follow-up from my last post where I actually "reveal secrets" from my recent trip to Japan. It's a reference to an event here at Roland DGA that we've had after the last 2 Pacific Design & Engineering/West Pack shows.

Read More

Roland DG is a Japanese company. While the name doesn't sound like it, it actually is. Our counterparts in Japan come over to Roland DGA's territory for shows and meetings with us fairly often, but a once or twice a year I head over to Hamamatsu Japan for meetings and to get the latest on new products in our pipeline. This time, we sent our sales, product management and field engineering teams over to have them see, first-hand, what R&D is working on and what we have coming. There's no way for me to translate every product detail or the excitement the engineers have for our products when I visit, so it's important for them to see it for themselves.

Read More

Read More