I have just attended the Konica Minolta Digital Innovation Forum in San Diego, CA. About 50 customers and prospects gathered to see KM’s production inkjet technology in action.
The night began with Professor Chris Bondy of RIT leading a session on evolving, finding new opportunities and growing commercial print and online media business. Many of his slides can be seen on the pictures page.
After Chris, Kevin Abergele, VP of MGI and Dino Pagliarello, Director at Konica Minolta held a fireside chat where they discussed the MGI JETVARNISH 3DS – their massive inkjet production press exclusively sold through Konica Minolta.
Using KM inkjet heads, this press offers some unique and impressive capabilities such as printing on foil. No other device to my knowledge can do this so inexpensively and the applications were impressive. Both the commercial printers in the room and dealers saw a ton of opportunity in this technology and the printers especially liked the new high-margin products they might provide to their customers.
The second day was fairly short with two sessions, splitting the group into two rooms where one focused on the hardware, the other being a panel discussion.
When I initially saw this technology about a year ago, I remember thinking “can they sell this, will their dealers want to sell it and will customers want to buy it?” I was skeptical. This is a very different animal for KM and while I could see it maybe selling through branches, I wasn’t sure dealers would be able to (or want to) make the investment to market these devices.
Sitting through the hardware session convinced me otherwise. Lots of questions from both customers and dealers as well as a mob scene at the device after the presentation showed me an incredible amount of interest. The printers I spoke to feel they can make a lot of money with this press and I believe them.
While it was a short event, it accomplished exactly what it needed to. Konica Minolta flew these people to a beautiful warm location in the dead of winter, took the dealers and customers golfing and showed them some technology that blew their minds. They really loved this foil printing and were drooling at the opportunity for high margin products ranging from business cards to wedding invitations and beyond. The printing is 3D in appearance with depth to it so the foil prints looked etched.
Because of its size and cost, this is not a press that’s going to be set up in every demo room. Unlike most products KM and dealers can simply show customers, this one takes some effort. It’s challenging to sell something you can’t easily show and Konica Minolta came up with a great way to spark everyone’s interest and generate leads.
Well done Konica Minolta, I can’t wait to hear how many of these MGI devices you sell as a result of this event. I am sure it will be several at least.
Click here to see all my event photos
