National Postal Forum 2010 – Here We Come!

Posted by Aneta Hall on April 13, 2010 in Mail

Although the US Postal Service is contemplating significant changes to its business model, during the National Postal Forum opening address the Postmaster General, Jack Potter, announced that “the Postal Service and the mailing industry have a strong and bright future ahead.”

While some caution that this optimism might be a bit premature  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/12/AR2010041201321.html , the mood in the hallways of the beautiful Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center  in Nashville, TN was upbeat and hopeful.

Because this is my first National Postal Forum it is hard for me to make any comparisons, but I’ve met with several veterans of the event who have been coming to NPF  for years to listen to USPS officials, to network with other mailing pros and to attend the over 130 mailing and shipping workshops (PDF) and according to them this is still the place to  be. There is no better way to catch up on the latest mailing trends and network with others for whom there is no sexier topic than mail. This year is no exception.

What’s the buzz this year?

• Intelligent Mail is on everybody’s minds (Sunday’s Intelligent Mail workshop was standing room only). Mailers are particularly interested in IMB’s implementation models  and looking for practical advice on what’s required and where the opportunities are for automation discounts and cost savings.
• The future of the Postal Service is everybody’s favorite topic. USPS officials are touting increased speed and flexibility which will allow the USPS to respond to an evolving marketplace, economy and business challenges.
• The proposed five-day mail delivery model is top of the list as mailers want to understand how this change might affect their business operations and their ability to communicate with customers.

The exhibit hall

I spent the most time at the exhibit hall where over 120 companies set up booths and equipment for demos, the exhibit hall spans 125,000 square feet  . I’ve captured images of the largest and most eye catching display areas incl.

• USPS itself
• Ricoh IBM
• NPI
• Lockheed Martin
• Kirk-Rudy, Inc.
• Neopost & Hassler
• Siemens
• BCC Software
• SICK, Inc.
• HP

More pictures here for your viewing pleasure

Pitney Bowes Big Announcement – Connect+™

The tradeshow barely started when the Pitney Bowes area got really busy during the unveiling of the Pitney Bowes newest mailing product.

Why is Connect+ so revolutionary? Well, we’d like to think about it as the end of “white mail” and the beginning of conversations about the importance of transactional mail and its ability to generate revenue. And these conversations are even happening OUTSIDE of the mailroom. I can’t wait to see how the mail arriving in my mailbox will change now that marketers will be able to deliver messages relevant to the content of their mail right on the front of the envelope in real time.

Pitney Bowes Tradeshow Booth

One thing for is sure, the closer you got the Pitney Bowes booth the louder it got. Why? First of all the booth was crowded with attendees (yay!) and second we brought with us to Nashville plenty of mailing equipment for your demoing pleasure including inserters, sorters, mailing machines, direct mail printers and mail-and-go kiosks. Turn them all on at the same time and you’ve got quite a hum going.  Can’t complain we did make the place sing

What I really liked about the Pitney Bowes display area was the ability to participate in a 10 minute tour of the booth led by the lovely Gale Allen. These tours are run every hour throughout the convention and give our attendees a chance to get a quick overview of the booth while taking note of the solutions they would like to come back to for a more comprehensive review.  Here are the key sections:

Connect+ ™ Customer Communication Series

The pride and joy of the entire Pitney Bowes team and the newest addition to the mailing solutions family. More>

SendSuite Shipping Solutions

Compare rates from multiple carriers in real-time, select the fastest, most cost-effective way to ship, track your inbound mail and package and monitor spend across your organization. Are we excited yet? More>

AddressRight Printers

High speed printers that let you place high-impact, customized messages right on the envelope increasing the chances your mail will get opened. You neeed to see it in action to appreciate the speed of this printer. More>

ComColor 9050 Printer

The fastest sheet-fed ink-jet color printer on the market with speeds up to 150 pages per minute! An ideal solution for printing direct mail, invoices, flyers and even postcards. More>

DI-950 Document Processing Solution

This one is for you, mid-range mailers. It lets you design, print, fold and insert complex mailings in a single, inline operation. BTW, it prints both black -and-white and color. More>

Mail & Go Kiosk

A growing number of corporate, university and retail customers are installing these self-service mail-and-go kiosks as a convenience for their employees or students and a traffic-builder for their stores. More>

Production Intelligence Software

Ok, I am quite convinced that people who design these solutions are geniuses or as we’d like to call them the “brain surgeons”  that keep your mail operations running at peak efficiency no matter the speed of processing and the need for the highest level of integrity when processing sensitive documents like financial or insurance statements. More>

IntelliJet™ Printing System

No, we did not attempt to ship this one to Nashville as the entire system could easily fill the entire booth. The IntelliJet is impressive to see in action as the world’s first high-speed, high integrity system that takes care of both: printing and mailing at speeds of 400 feet of paper per minute! More>

Olympus II Mail Sorter

Avoid paying a single penny more for postage and gain access to discounts available by printing Intelligent Mail barcodes that meet USPS standards. More>

Mailstream Evolution Inserting System

The changeover from letters to flats was done using this machine in less than 3 minute timeframe! More>

Presort Services

Deepest postal discounts available + no hassle international mailing. More>

TrackMyMail

Web-based tracking solution that follows your mail as it moves through the postal system. More>

Enterprise Address Management

Did you know that 23% of records contain address errors? What’s the solution? Closed-loop approach to cleanse, validate and update addresses at one source. More>

These short descriptions and images do not replace seeing all of the demos and talking to PB’ers live on the tradeshow floor. So if you are at the National Postal Forum, please stop by and say hi. We’ve got lots of enthusiasm and plenty of tasty dark chocolate to share with you. If you are not here in person, catch a glimpse of the activities via Twitter or Facebook .

Aneta Hall is a social media strategist at Pitney Bowes. She blogs at anetahall.com