DALLAS PRINTING was represented at the National Print & Sign Owners Association annual conference in New Orleans last week. The organizers did their typical sterling job of putting on an excellent three-day meeting packed full of relevant and informative content. Topics included human resources management, marketing, sales, operations automation, large format materials and installation, online ordering portals, and more. There were also several facilitated roundtable discussions about various issues and a vendor trade show featuring equipment, software, and services.
Perhaps the most timely and important topic of the conference was artificial intelligence and its potential effect on our printing and sign businesses. A 13-year veteran of the artificial intelligence effort at Microsoft presented two hours of content on the history and development of AI, its current capabilities and limitations, and how it is likely to affect our operations in the near term. AI is clearly a disruptive technology that will have a major (and unpredictable) impact on our industry and the world as it becomes increasingly ubiquitous.