Earth Day

For someone from up North, traveling to Texas for a few days seemed like a good idea in April. Had some good meetings set up along with a great afternoon outside for an Earth Day celebration. What was intended as a simple way in the advertising community to promote Earth Day and the various works of companies to provide environmentally-friendly solutions ended up feeling like a couple of hours walking on the sun (thanks global warming).

One of Dallas' largest ad agencies threw a great party with food, drink, deejay and even one of the most bizzare Elvis impersonators I've ever seen on the top of a parking garage in 90 degree heat. Transilwrap was invited to join with one of our printing partners to help promote our Bio Plastics. And several other companies that we work closely with were in attendance also continuing to promote their programs and stewardship towards the environment. What impressed me the most though was the intention and outcome of this party.

The agency had each partner/company set up with a small booth so that their employees (designers, account executives, graphic artists and more) could mingle around to each group to learn more about their offerings and ways to incorporate it into their work. Brilliant! Someone out there remembers that work can be fun and educational, particularly in light of the bad news hitting us daily on the tv, radio and paper.

Showcasing the collective efforts of many in the community to underline the point that it takes all of us working together to design, supply and create meaningful, environmentally friendly solutions was a stroke of genius. It lead to some great conversations with new ideas being thrown around and renewed interests in our continuing promotion of smarter plastic choices.

And to think all it cost me was a sweat-stained suit and a sun burnt head. But then again, there are worse ways to spend your time promoting your products.

Courage and Plastics

Do you have your copy of the "Future Classics on Plastics" yet? email cliff_brunson@transilwrap.com for your very own. * see below for more information

"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway". - John Wayne

I saw this quote at a recent trip to a restaurant in the middle of East Texas. When I say middle, I should emphasize "middle of no where." When a good friend of mine told me about the Sacred Spur Steak House, located at the corner of Hwy 1844 and Turkey Road in East Mountain Texas, my curiosity had the best of me. As my friends know, I love the not so ordinary places to dine, and this establishment was exactly that and then some. Great food, and the atmosphere is definitely "Texas".

So, your wondering how does this little steak house have anything to do with printing plastics. It serves as a reminder that if it were not for my friend telling me about this place, I would have never known of its existence. The same idea goes along with the customers we service. Are we informing our clients about new concepts and products? In todays business markets, it is probably more important now than ever to be in front of your customers with fresh ideas that will help them with their business plans going forward.

I had a customer tell me a few weeks ago that the "green movement" had stopped, and that their customers were just looking for materials that had the best price. That brought up the perfect opportunity to discuss our Green Line of plastic products, and also a brief summary of the presentation that Barry White and I gave at this years sold out 2009 Print UV Seminar in Las Vegas.

The "green movement" is just getting started, and is expected to produce several million jobs in the U.S. within the next 5-10 years. I included several pieces of information about how Transilwrap is informing and teaching our customers and end users about "green plastics"that are currently available to them. This presentation is a very non bias forum of important information surrounding this subject.

That conversation has since led to an invitation from this customer to give our presentation to their sales staff and customer service so that they are better informed about the materials that their customers are requesting to be printed on.

If you are interested in knowing more about Transilwrap's "Green Plastics" presentation, please email me at cliff_brunson@transilwrap.com , You can also email me to request our brand new Bio ProPrint LP Album and Cover. A guaranteed conversation starter.

* Are you ready to brighten up your office and desk? Then order your free copy of "Future Classics on Plastics" today by emailing us with your address and contact information.

The Original Day of "Green"

As we celebrate the original way of going "green" today, it's a fitting time to reflect on recent history and look ahead to the future.

Over the past two years, the conversation with many customers has turned to going "green". It may mean something different to everybody but for us it has meant searching for supplies to a growing demand. Often times in life it's not the big, final-action scene in a movie type events that inspire change but rather a collection of small events that lead to bigger and better ends. That's true in plastics also.

It would be easy to focus on the negative claims of many that no matter how you shake it, you can't create a truly environmentally friendly product with plastic. I won't profess to be an expert and will save that discussion for another time. What I do know is that even small incremental changes in the products we make and source can have a very real change in the long-term.

It's great to talk about our biodegradable plastics and the various applications and uses we've seen over the last couple of years, from high-end retail signage to magazine publishing to gift cards and more. But we're not done there - there is much more that we can and will be doing, as a company and and industry. We continually are evaluating new products that fall under some banner of "green" - recyclable, recycled content, degradable, biodegradable, compostable and more.

To me, the excitement is in the chase. We've hit upon a series of bio-products that we're proud to create and sell. But our efforts are just beginning.

So take the time today to raise a pint and toast the small efforts, in your lives and ours, that are collectively making the big changes.

Print UV 09

Transilwrap has been invited to speak at this years Print UV 09 show being held March 8-10 in Las Vegas. Print UV (http://www.printuv.com/), in its second year, is a very intimate conference geared towards UV printers and focusing on agendas that will help them differentiate themselves in the marketplace.

Transilwrap will be presenting a seminar titled "Green Plastics? Seriously!" that will educate the audience on the expanding universe of more environmentally friendly plastic film solutions including degradable and starch-based products as well as our biodegradable Styrene, Alloy and Proprint products.

We're looking forward to a great show and some good dialogue on Printing on Plastic with UV Printers from around the country.