Esko reports that a record crowd of nearly 600 people attended the recently concluded EskoWorld User Conference, held May 19-22, 2013 at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix. In addition to drawing an exceptional crowd, the program, including product overviews, future roadmaps, workshops, and user presentations, was extremely well received by all attendees – customers and partners alike.

“We are grateful that we seem to out-do ourselves at EskoWorld every year,” says Mark Quinlan, president, Esko Americas. “Perhaps it’s no surprise that attendance is growing as it is. It is our objective to plan and execute the best educational program we can for our customers. EskoWorld is organized for them to learn how to make the most out of their Esko solutions. From the feedback we’ve received, we accomplished what we set out to do, and have given our customers tangible plans of action that they can take advantage of, when they return to their jobs.”

After Quinlan officially opened EskoWorld 2013, Carsten Knudsen, CEO of Esko, offered the company’s keynote, providing Esko’s current view of the industry. Bernard Zwaenepoel, Esko Senior VP Software Business followed, delivering an overview of product development and updates with ‘Strategic Focus Areas and Roadmap 2013’. Jan De Roeck, Esko Director of Solutions Management, moderated two sessions of “Meet the Partners,” allowing EskoWorld attendees to get more familiar with companies from Esko’s Partner Zone.

The general session ended with a keynote presentation from Bill Capodagli, co-founder of Capodagli Jackson Consulting. Capodagli is currently the most requested speaker on Walt Disney’s success and leadership principles in the US, as one of the most recognizable storytellers on the cultures of Disney and Pixar. Capodagli enlightened the audience with Walt Disney’s original success formula, “Dream, Believe, Dare, Do”, that is transforming both entrepreneurial and Fortune 500 companies alike. In his presentation, he provided thoughts on how to build innovation in a company and challenged EskoWorld guests to get their employees more engaged in corporate objectives using Walt Disney’s principles.

EskoWorld break-out sessions
“While I consider myself a power user of ArtiosCAD, I had not attended EskoWorld since 2008. I wanted to catch up and get current about ArtiosCAD and learn about new features from the more recent versions – and what is coming up,” says Warren Patterson, structural designer, Weber Display & Packaging. “In one of the sessions, we could offer a wish list of features we’d like to see. I had a suggestion – it was one of the reasons I wanted to attend. Every session was helpful, although I particularly appreciated the Tips & Tricks and advanced StyleMaker and ReportMaker sessions. The other reason I wanted to attend was to talk with others in the industry, and Esko people. They can help with ideas you might not get anywhere else.”

Once again, more than 90 sessions covered the entire range of Esko product areas, with solution tracks covering diverse of applications including digital flexo, commercial print prepress, packaging prepress, structural design, 3D design, brand management, digital print, and digital finishing. The sessions varied in nature from roadmaps, offering views of a current product and planned development in the future; academies, providing hands-on operator training sessions on Macs and PCs; and presentations, sharing industry overviews or product and service information.