Spectrum 2001 Day Two

TUSCAN, AZ—Monday marked the inaugural Web cast of the SPECTRUM conference. With assistance from NEC and Quebecor World, the conference was cast to seven sites. How appropriate then that the day's first session, "Digital Asset Management: Getting off the Launchpad!" featured 15 speakers, 10 via video. Jean Moxom, print media markets manager for Imation, and Joyce Vogt, technical sales consultant for Banta, interviewed 10 industry professionals in sales, catalogs, consulting, advertising, etc., about the varying needs for digital asset management. The interviews were conducted in the month leading up to the show and the resulting video clips were interspersed throughout the session.

On stage, Moxom and Vogt welcomed Jeff Bartol, Integral Business Solutions; Jane Hunt, Radio Shack; and Kathy Traver, Bausch & Lomb. Bartol discussed the differing roles consultants and integrators play in DAM. Consultants are to be thought of more in terms of "what" and integrators are to be thought of in terms of "how," according to Bartol. Hunt offered an insightful look into her search for a comprehensive and tailored DAM system. She noted that a key element in any successful DAM undertaking is corporate support, as Hunt has from Radio Shack's president. Working for a global corporation such as Bausch & Lomb, Traver explained that any DAM system implemented by the company would have to work for her colleagues in 40 sites around the globe. The session was a great reminder that one DAM system does not fit all and that companies should carefully assess their specific needs before implementation.

By mid-morning the day was set for a little motivational talk. With the short introduction of "Here's Larry," Larry Winget bound onto to the stage to deliver the day's keynote. Winget travels around the country with the message that success is simple, money is easy and life is amusing. He took the opportunity to remind attendees that life and work are best when the time is taken to laugh at things and not take them so seriously. When Winget began to list the world's 18 great ideas, beginning with taking responsibility, he chastised an attendee for writing the thought down. The audience laughed heartily when Winget noted that the notion of taking responsibility was not a new one and if attendees didn't grasp that by now they were in trouble. Winget continued to regale the audience with funny observations made throughout his travels around the globe. But underneath Winget's comic exterior exists the more important message that attendees should take work less seriously, making time to also socialize.