I am writing this, like most of my blogs, from an airplane on my way home, this time from Minnesota, and guessing I may be warm again in 3 days! It was a cold week, but a really positive one.

I want to thank all of my colleagues from the Flexo industry who have been calling me, after seeing Kodak advertising to fill new flexo and packaging positions that include my old job title. I want to let you ALL know I am still with Kodak, and happy to say I have taken a new role, moving from Global Flexo Future Product Marketing, to an Americas regional role as Director of Packaging Segment Marketing. I become part of a really strong team in the Americas, working together with Walter Murillo to continue to grow the Flexo and Packaging businesses for Kodak in both North and South America. As announced to the New York stock market this week with Kodak's quarterly results, one of the top three priorities for growth In Kodak in 2010 is Packaging. This is a clear indication of Kodak's continued and growing commitment to packaging and Flexo in particular!

I have spent the last 3 days with colleagues from all corners of the Americas who represent Sales and Marketing for Kodak's broad offerings in portal products, workflow, proofing, offset and flexo printing, all collaborating, learning more and more about Flexo and growing our integrated business.

There was one participant who in particular I must make a point to introduce and welcome to Kodak, and that is Joaquin Ventura who has just joined Kodak in Mexico to work with packaging customers in Latin America. Some of you will know Joaquin very well, he has been with DuPont Cyrel for the last 10 years. I am really pleased to have him on board!

I spent time some with Joaquin over the last few days as he did practical plate making in the lab. His goal was to truly understand all of the steps involved in making the Flexcel NX plates, and his reaction and comments were enlightening! I want to share some of them because if Joaquin was surprised then it will be the same for many others that might have been told about Flexcel NX by non Kodak people. There were 3 things in particular that Joaquin said: "This is much quicker and simpler than I thought, the whole process is easy.", "Lamination is easy and simple to learn, and the built in protection against dust was a real good surprise. I expected to need a clean room, but this lab is not that, it is just like a normal plate room", and "Looking at the plates and dots under the microscopes in the lab, the consistency and repeatability is amazing, plus with DigiCap NX it is such a fine surface texturization, it is like nothing I have ever seen before!" It was clear from watching and listening that the information in the market and other suppliers on Flexcel NX is full of inaccuracies and errors, but when the real situation is revealed it is a really positive reaction!

If all you know about Flexcel NX and DigiCap NX is from listening to our competitors, then I fear what you have been told may not be correct either. If you want to know more of the true realities visit www.kodak.com/go/flexo, or contact me at john.anderson3@kodak.com, and I will be happy to put you in contact with a Kodak packaging specialist to update your understanding on Kodak and what we have to offer.

We will also be offering a series of one hour WebEx presentations in the coming months, to allow you to update your knowledge from the comfort of your own chair. You will need to register to get access to the sessions, but otherwise they will be free to attend. The first two will be in February and will be on Kodak's environmental sustainability positioning in the Flexo industry, dates to be announced very soon!

Updated 1:30pm - more great shots from yesterday:










Partners attending the Kodak Executive Summit (KES) heard at the General Session how Kodak's portfolio of document imaging products, software and services provides them a "standard" capture platform to build their solution offerings to end-user customers and, of course, grow their companies.

Tony Barbeau General Manager, Kodak Document Imaging, talked about the business value of a capture platform. Tony explained how the capture platform provides a level of simplicity, scalability and standardization for IT professionals looking for flexibility in building document capture solutions for their companies.

But no platform can stand alone and it's the Kodak Partners that really bring value to the IT buyer and end-user. It's their knowledge of document capture and everything that goes into delivering a solution (planning, design, implementation, support) that makes the Kodak platform a good base to build upon and an easy decision for IT buyers.

Russell Hunt, Regional Business Manger, US & Canada, emphasized his dedication to Kodak partners by his commitment to deliver the support, the products, and the programs, they need to win.

The Kodak platform provides Partners - Resellers, ISVs, VADs -with a simple, scalable and standard foundation to build and deliver customer solutions.

How important is this platform for your growth?

Updated 9:25am , here are some pictures from yesterdays event:


It's tough to go anywhere without hearing about the changes underway in the healthcare industry . Geoff Walton, President and CEO, Comprehensive Care Strategies, and a Kodak Executive Summit (KES) Guest Speaker, provided attendees with an industry perspective of the key changes facing healthcare providers and ideas about how Document Imaging Resellers can prospect and capitalize on the opportunity.

EMR (Electronic Medical Records) is at the core of the change to the system and there are billions of dollars available in physician incentives and hospital bonuses to use EMR. Geoff discussed some of the barriers facing EMR adoption (such as optical recognition of physician handwriting) but described transitional models and opportunities for the document imaging reseller today.

Another guest speaker, Brian Offenberger, Founder, Right-On-No Bull Marketing , shared his "15 Secrets of Top Performing Websites". His online marketing experience and entertaining style gave resellers some ideas for converting web leads to sales. Though we can't share all the secrets, his ideas about online offers, trust, and analytics, are helpful to keep in mind when developing your online campaigns and converting your website to be a top sales performer.

The Kodak Executive Summit (KES), Kodak Document Imaging's annual event for channel resellers kicked off in San Antonio. An important part of this meeting is the Channel Solutions Showcase which is a mini-tradeshow featuring Kodak ISV (Independent Software Vendor) and VAD (Value Added Distributor) partners.

The Showcase provides a forum for Kodak Resellers to meet ISV's and VAD's, get a look at their latest technology, learn how their applications and solutions fit in the marketplace, and how to sell and use their solutions to meet customer needs.

ISV's range from industry focused partners like My Medical Records that offer a solution for Electronic Medical Records (EMR) to BCS Systems and FileBound -Document Management Solutions, companies that provide solutions for capture and integration to Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Systems to companies and industries of all sizes. Many of Kodak's ISVs use Kodak document scanners and capture software to integrate with Microsoft Share Point solutions.

The event is a great way to connect and find new ideas for presenting choices to your end-user customers.