My friend Vince asked me to provide a recap for his readers of the just-completed Lyra Imaging Symposium held in Rancho Mirage, CA.

Lyra Research, the company hosting the conference, is the leading research and analysis firm in the Printing and Imaging industry and this year they celebrated their 10^th annual Imaging Symposium. (I’ve attended the majority of them.) And this year’s was notable for more than the anniversary – it was the most well-attended conference yet, and was sponsored by a wide variety of companies in our industry, including HP.

The conference sessions span two full days and include both analyst presentations and updates from company executives. There is also a Wall Street angle, as Lyra invites the leading stock analysts from New York and elsewhere to share their views on the state of the current and future printing business. Having the conference at a Southern California desert resort in January probably has something to do with the good turnout of both speakers and attendees!

The range in subjects covered goes from inkjet and laser printers for the home and small office, on up to commercial printers and even machines and supplies that print billboards! And of course when virtually every one of these market areas is discussed, HP is either mentioned as the clear leader or an up-and-comer that needs to be watched. Chris Privon, HP Vice President, and Stephen Nigro, HP Senior Vice President, were both invited to share HP’s view and future plans.

Chris covered HP’s recent success in bringing customers new levels of value in the Multi-Function Laser business, with a special emphasis on solving enterprise customers’ needs by intelligently integrating printers and MFPs into the overall IT infrastructure. Stephen shared the stage with HP partner Grant Fletcher, President, Rastar Digital Marketing. Rastar is doing some very creative things for their clients in the marketing collateral and promotion area that garnered a great deal of attention from the Symposium audience.

However, it’s not just HP employees who highlight the company’s role as the industry leader. Analysts and even sometimes competitors pay heed to HP’s advanced technology and strong record of pushing the industry forward while paying close attention to existing and future customers and their needs. An example was Lyra analyst Steve Reynolds, who spent most of his allotted presentation about the copier and MFP market talking about HP’s successful market entry with the HP 4345mfp and its follow-ons (described by him as an “overnight success ten years in the making”), and the looming presence of HP’s Edgeline.

And leading Wall Street analyst Ben Reitzes of UBS offered a presentation entitled “How Does HP Stay on Top? A Financial Analyst Perspective”. He focused on HP’s ongoing technology investment as its biggest asset.

Much of the remainder of the conference covered topics that will be familiar to regular readers as in the following blogs:

Imaging & Printing Year in Review—a synopsis of realized Imaging and Printing trends from 2006
Universal adoption of Vista and Office 2007 —printing issues around the adoption of Vista, the new Windows operating system, and relevant to incorporating Office 2007 into your printing workflow
How to Secure Your Imaging & Printing—security issues around imaging and printing
Taking it Easy (a printer management perspective)—how to save resources in managing your imaging and printing devices
Saving Time with Universal Print Drivers—the advantages of employing Universal Print Drivers for your printing devices
Second Hand Rose?—the issues around using remanufactured print cartridges and benefits of using those originally designed for your printer
Enterprising Imaging and Printing —announcing the new HP Imaging & Printing devices launched in fall 2006