🏝️ 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝟖: 𝐒𝐡𝐞*𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬

Tara and Mackenzie sit down with all four founders of She*t For Brains, Jessica DeCola of GPA, Jon Bailey of Precision Proco, Chris Minn of Digital Ink, and David Rosendahl of Mindfire, for an honest conversation about mental health, leadership and building a culture where people feel safe saying they are not okay.

🎥 Watch the full episode now: https://youtu.be/aQRZ-6ehGZ4

The founders share how it all started, a handoff speech at Dscoop Indianapolis that turned into a two hour phone call from a rainy service station in England, built on one goal: if they helped just one person, it was worth it. Tara and Mackenzie bring a genuinely fresh generational take, from therapy to TikTok as an unexpected mental health education tool, and why lighthearted beats lecture every time.

And of course there is a game. Brains or BS puts print industry myths and mental health stats to the test.

🎥 Watch the full episode now: https://youtu.be/aQRZ-6ehGZ4

#printisland #talkmoreprint #tara #mackenzie #sheforbrains #jessicadecola #jonbailey #chrisminn #davidrosendahl #mentalhealth #printindustry #leadership #dscoop

🏝️ 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝟕: 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

The biggest crew yet. Tara and Mackenzie are joined by Faith, Maggie and Emmeline, the full core group behind the Graphic Arts Association at Ferris State, for a genuinely heartwarming look at what happens when a student club gets rebuilt from zero after COVID.

🎥 Watch the full episode now: https://youtu.be/nEDlTdMhRoc

Five friends who barely knew each other before a five hour van ride to Print Excellence Awards freshman year, now inseparable. Company tours, trade show trips to Atlanta and Vegas, Dscoop, matching pajamas, a cardboard cutout of Maggie that made a guest appearance at Cabela's, and a fake frat merch line called Gamma Alpha Alpha. The stories are as funny as they are genuine, but underneath all of it is something that actually matters. Confidence built. Leadership skills nobody expected to need. A support network that stretches across the entire industry, and a genuine worry about handing GAA over to the next generation and hoping it keeps growing.

And because no Talk More Print episode is complete without a game, this one closes with a brand new segment: pitching entirely made up, wildly unhinged print products including scratch off resumes, glow in the dark business cards, mood changing packaging, crying paper, and the self-destructing flyer. Some genuinely got investment. Some did not survive the pitch.

🎥 Watch the full episode now: https://youtu.be/nEDlTdMhRoc

#printisland #talkmoreprint #tara #mackenzie #faith #maggie #emmeline #ferrisstate #printmanagement #graphicartsassociation #nextgenprint #printindustry #printeducation

"When something new comes in, you've got to deal with it; there's no point crying about it"

- Lesley Harris with some home truths on this week's Diary of a Castaway.

Lesley is a sales professional with over 20 years of experience and talks to Mark Stephenson about how she set up a new business to handle everything from umbrellas to print, via mugs, pens and water bottles.

Lesley is also a seasoned networker too, she shares her tips on maximizing opportunities and encourages new business startups to seek help and take on new challenges.

Watch the full episode here https://youtu.be/PX5KiHubQHc and catch up with Seasons 1 and 2 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNyw4EWtFBw&list=PLPtXHLHFF6h_CPSqY02ShqCDMqU0h07BH

As a relative newcomer to the print scene, Chris Brock has made an immediate impression as editor of Digital Printer Magazine.

In this episode, Chris shares his experience of being a castaway with Mark Stephenson and makes no secret of the number of times he's 'been let go'.

In a slightly surreal moment, Chris compliments Mark in a surprising manner before spoiling the vibe with a backhanded compliment. You never know where the conversation will take you next on Print Island.

Watch the full episode here and come back next week for more Diary of a Castaway, only on Print Island!

🏝️ 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐇𝐲𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐤𝐣𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞: 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

In this episode of The Treehouse, Jean Lloyd and Phil Walsh unpack hybrid printing, arguably the most talked about topic in the industry right now, and head to a secret Southern Hemisphere location for the first live installation of a UK-built Memjet powered system from Simply Inkjet.

Jean meets with Simon Cooper, CEO of Simply Inkjet, to see 1600 dpi full web width inkjet running at 300 metres a minute, printed straight onto a live production line with zero setup and zero waste. First copy printed in position, every single time. Simon walks through why the retrofit market is exploding, from bag making lines to corrugated packaging, and why food grade inks are opening the door to genuine packaging applications at scale.

The conversation covers SKU reduction as a massive opportunity for corrugated, where digital versioning can take a warehouse from forty SKUs down to one, and why Simon has stopped talking about resolution and specs altogether. Show people the samples, and the wow speaks for itself.

Six years since starting from the customer side, Simply Inkjet has built a business where no two installations are the same, and this is only the beginning.

#printisland #thetreehouse #jeanlloyd #philwalsh #simoncooper #simplyinkjet #hybridprinting #inkjet #memjet #packaging #corrugated #digitalprint #printindustry #southafrica

🏝️ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞: 𝐍𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲

In this episode of The Lighthouse, Richard Askam finally lands a guest he has been chasing for eighteen months. Nessan Cleary, veteran print journalist, joins from just up the road to talk truth, journalism and where the industry is really heading.

Nessan explains why he sees himself as writing for a global audience rather than any single region, because print businesses everywhere share the same problems in different languages and different weather. The conversation moves into industrial print as the genuinely interesting frontier right now, from windscreen coatings to furniture manufacturing, and why most people still pigeonhole print as newspapers and magazines without realising just how much of the world around them is printed.

There is a refreshingly honest take on automation, why Nessan does not buy the narrative that Gen Z simply will not work in print, and why the real driver behind a lot of automation talk is cost cutting dressed up as generational necessity. He also shares a genuinely compelling idea for where 3D printing and graphics could converge next, and a sharp reality check for anyone in decorated apparel about the difference between decoration and true manufacturing.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Welcome to The Lighthouse with Nessan Cleary

01:14 – Nessan's route into journalism

02:33 – The value of truth over marketing guff

03:53 – How Nessan started writing about print

04:44 – Digital vs non-digital: an easy choice

05:08 – Why industrial print is the real story

06:53 – The ubiquity of print and why nobody notices it

07:43 – Does the next generation understand print's value?

09:04 – The biggest problem facing the industry right now

09:53 – Should OEMs slow down R&D?

10:45 – The truth about automation and Gen Z

12:04 – Efficiency versus a functioning economy

12:26 – What Nessan wants to see in the next 10-20 years

12:47 – 3D printing and personalisation

13:29 – Why 3D printing's potential is still underused

14:12 – Decoration versus manufacturing: the t-shirt problem

14:45 – Writing for the reader, always

15:29 – Closing thoughts and thank you

#printisland #thelighthouse #richardaskam #nessancleary #industrialprint #printjournalism #printindustry #3dprinting #automation #printtrends

In this episode of The Software Matrix, Christopher Minn heads to HP's Automation Center within the Alpharetta Graphics Experience Center to sit down with Bob Raus and Nathan Gillner, two of the experts joining the PRINTING AI Pavilion at PRINTING United Expo next month in Las Vegas.

The headline is HP Neo, the agentic AI system built directly into PrintOS, HP's ten year data analysis platform spanning Indigo, page wide and large format customers alike. Bob and Nathan explain what agentic actually means in practice, multiple AI systems working together through one orchestrator, with every account completely siloed and secured right down to individual user permissions inside the same business. Since launching in February, Neo has already reached 5,000 users, and Bob is not shy about the target for next year: twenty thousand.

There is also a first look at Order Flow, a new tool built to make order tracking tangible and automated across a business, and a candid conversation about why doing AI ethically matters as much as doing it well, particularly for a company with HP's eighty year IT heritage behind it.

If you are heading to the AI Pavilion in Las Vegas, this is the session you will not want to miss.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Welcome from HP's Alpharetta Automation Center

00:27 – Meet Bob Raus and Nathan Gillner

01:22 – What HP is bringing to the AI Pavilion

01:32 – Introducing HP Neo and PrintOS

02:02 – Order Flow: the new automated order tracking tool

02:22 – HP's investment in software and AI

03:20 – Two locations at PRINTING United: HP booth and AI Pavilion

04:48 – Why Neo simplifies decision-making across PrintOS apps

06:07 – Ten years of secure, siloed customer data

06:48 – Addressing concerns around AI adoption

08:11 – What agentic AI actually means

08:46 – How Neo secures and segments data by account and user

09:38 – 5,000 users since launch and where Neo is headed next

10:38 – Bob's bold prediction: 20,000 users by next year

11:24 – Closing thoughts and see you at the AI Pavilion

🎥 Watch the full episode now: https://youtu.be/VdUyQHZXsB4

#printisland #thesoftwarematrix #christopherminn #bobraus #nathangillner #hp #hpneo #printos #printingai #printingunitedexpo #printingunitedalliance #aiinprint #printindustry

🏝️ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐎𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤: 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐧 𝐀𝐈 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬

Rusty Pepper and Maddy Alcala pick back up a conversation that started at a packed private industry event in Barcelona, this time with the room, the OSCARS music and the interrupted lunch removed. Hans Scheffer, CEO of Helloprint, returns to go deeper on what it genuinely takes to rebuild a company around AI from the ground up.

🎥 Watch the full episode now: https://youtu.be/-SCF-nX--Cc

Hans is refreshingly honest about what this actually looks like day to day. Failing constantly, on purpose, because the speed of iteration matters more than the outcome of any single attempt. He explains why becoming AI first is not a technology project, it is a cultural one, why curiosity and business acumen matter more than any specific skill set right now, and why AI genuinely acts as an equalizer, opening superstar level roles to people who would never have had access to them before.

🎥 Watch the full episode now: https://youtu.be/-SCF-nX--Cc

#printisland #printondemandplaybook #rustypepper #maddyalcala #hansscheffer #helloprint #printondemand #aiinprint #printingunitedexpo #printindustry #techleadership #fespa2026