Make Your Mark: IPMA Conference Highlights and Key Takeaways by Lois Ritarossi

IPMA members, partners and sponsors recently gathered in Spokane Washington for the annual conference and awards ceremony with the event theme, Make Your Mark. The event was successful in building upon the strong IPMA culture of sharing, learning and participating.  

As an exhibitor and speaker, it was a pleasure to experience the level of engagement and enthusiasm among attendees, exhibitors and sponsors. Across the many sessions, panels and keynote speakers the three big topics were: leveraging technology, AI driving innovation, and professional development.

1. Leveraging Technology to Simplifying Workflows and Evolve Operations

Many speakers presented operational success stories focused on leveraging technology to automate processes, improve efficiency and simplify workflows. Sessions led by Canon, Racami, Ricoh and Konica Minolta demonstrated hardware and software solutions that transformed outdated and complex workflows into data-driven operations.

Attendees were eager to hear about peer examples of technology success. Speakers made their mark by sharing solutions that resulted in labor savings and cost reductions, while improving workflow and turnaround. Operations managers were happy to explain how they are evolving their print and mail workflows to better serve customers and create production environments that enable easier employee training and onboarding while simplifying processes.

I presented a utility in-plant success story driven by the need to move to a new building and right-size the operation after outsourcing customer bills. This is a story of transformation and workflow reengineering. The critical success factors included: senior leader alignment, a cross functional project team, a willingness to change, valuing professional services and subject matter expertise, and a commitment to training. The impact on the operation and their organization was lower operating costs, reduction in technical debt, elimination of points of failure, expanded services, and an optimized operation for future growth.

Other speakers shared how strategic investments in technology and infrastructure enabled insourcing of different types of work and providing further value to their organizations.

2. AI Driving Innovation

Like most industry conferences, AI topics dominated. In a keynote session presented by David Rosendahl of Mindfire, he shared insights about AI hype and use cases for home and business applications. Attendees were wowed by examples of content creation and content repurposing tools. Dave challenged attendees to embrace AI, commit to learning and become AI leaders in their organizations. Dave referenced a Harvard Business School research report demonstrating increased productivity when employees use AI tools. Another data point from the same report which Dave did not discuss was a significant decrease in employee satisfaction when using AI tools. Attendees asked about the AI challenges with compliance and data security. The question for the group to ponder is what job roles will be enhanced or replaced by AI.

In a panel on AI, Konica Minolta, Canon USA, and Ricoh USA shared how AI in their hardware and software products enables significant improvements in production. Use cases include AI tools and integrations for predictive maintenance, workflow optimization, and computer vision for applying embellishments. Ricoh and EFI have partnered to integrate natural language processing for workflow automation through Fiery Scribe.

AI is changing workflows and enabling managers to make informed, data-driven decisions positively impacting scheduling, throughput and equipment uptime.

3. Elevating Your Professional Value through Leadership Development

Several presenters spoke about strategies and approaches for professional and leadership development. Attendees learned concepts to improve their leadership skills and departmental effectiveness. Sherri Isbell from the University of Oklahoma presented leadership skills based on the concepts of authentic influence, everyday impact, perseverance, and emotional intelligence.

Keynote speaker and author Steve Gilliland shared his approach on moving forward regardless of the difficult path and embracing positivity in communication. Attendees received a copy of his book, It is What You Make It: Overcoming the It Is What It Is.

Mark Fallon of the Berkshire Company presented leadership strategies based on Poor Richard’s Almanack. One concept was encouraging managers to take personal responsibility. Successful leaders need to account for their actions and the actions of their department. That means integrating systems that monitor not just every job, but pieces within that job. Just as important as any technical tool is the attitude of the individual performing the work. The team must adopt a culture of accountability.

Attendees left these sessions with ideas to implement continuous professional growth initiatives in their organizations.

See You in Greenville South Carolina

“Sustainable growth in the industry depends not only on innovation – but investing in people.” Frank Mallozzi, Konica Minolta

Attendees made their mark through collaborative learning and knowledge sharing. They left the conference inspired to bring insights and ideas back to their departments.  In-person conference learnings create lasting operational impact. Plan to attend the IPMA Road Shows in your area and the 2026 Educational Conference in Greenville South Carolina next June.

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