The organisation's communications officer has stressed 2017 as a time of great importance for in-house higher education print units. 

“The relevance is now greater than ever in some ways," said communications officer Darren Lewis.

“Some in-house plants are under threat because universities are looking at outsource options and then others are reinstating in-house print rooms because they are serving a small town, effectively. On certain things it makes sense to have in-house plants there.” 

The conference is mainly attended by higher education print managers but some of the attendees will include delegates from the likes of Duplo, Canon, Ricoh, Morgana, Konica Minolta and Antalis. Last year’s conference took place in Torquay.

This year it will take place between 4 and 7 June at the Golden Jubilee Conference Hall, Glasgow, with around 20 exhibitors and 80 delegates expected to attend.

Aside from the exhibition, there will be a number of talks and seminars, with a keynote speech from Future Index founder Jim Tudor and other speakers including Adobe’s Tony Harmer and Revolution Digital’s Jan Edgecombe. 

Lewis added: “We try to get a balance of things; the members are from quite different organisations and the structures are very different, so some might be running a small print room while others might be running a really big team with social media, design and so on. 

“We have people ranging from experts in higher education marketing through to suppliers coming right through to print finishing equipment manufacturers.”

A number of in-house higher education print units have invested significantly in kit over the past few months, including Heriot-Watt University, Robert Gordon University’s Make Aberdeen project and Oxuniprint. 

The ACPME conference has been running for more than 20 years, starting out as the University Print Manager’s Group conference.