HUGs in Melbourne
by Pete Zanmiller
A record 187 participants representing 68 North American newspapers attended the 16th annual Heidelberg Users Group meeting April 27-28 in Melbourne, Fla.
The two-day meeting kicked off with a general session featuring Frank Paiva, vice president of operations at The Seattle Times, who discussed programs to improve retention of packaging-center employees and build a more diverse workforce.
Participants then toured host-newspaper Florida Today's production facility, which includes two Heidelberg NP630 inserters and a new NP632 inserter. Also on display were an Olympia stacker and Heidelberg mini-loaders. In addition, participants viewed "Gizmos and Gadgets"--parts, tools or ideas brought in from participating sites to help improve inserting operations.
Afternoon sessions were split between managers and technical attendees. Managers held roundtable discussions on Prima software, preventative maintenance and new technology. Technical attendees heard sessions on equipment maintenance, new tools and technology, as well as demos of the NP632 inserter and the mini-loaders.
Julian Price, Florida Today's retail-advertising manager, discussed advertising needs in the packaging center during Tuesday's general session. Managers then held a strategic-planning session presented by Kelly Acevedo, Florida Today's advertising operations manager, while the technical groups held roundtable discussions on such issues as dealing with difficult inserts, preventative maintenance, backup parts, the Year 2000 problem and other topics. Heidelberg also presented information on its new Atlas inserter and storage system.
Special recognition was given to one of HUG's original board members, Dennis McGuire, who will be retiring later this year. Next year's meeting will be held at The Seattle Times, dates to be determined. Information will be available later this year on HUG's World Wide Web page (http://www.heidelbergusers.com) and in upcoming mailings. The Web page also includes notes from this year's breakout sessions and is a great place to share information with other Heidelberg users.
Pete Zanmiller is production director for Florida Today and past president of the Heidelberg Users Group. E-mail, pzanmill@brevard.gannett.com; phone, (407) 242-3550; fax, (407) 752-5067.