TLMI hosts its largest Annual Meeting

With over 500 people registered for the event, and more than 50 new attendees, this year’s TLMI Annual Meeting was the biggest in the organization's history.  

Held on Marco Island, Florida, from October 12 to 14, the meeting provided an opportunity for converters and suppliers to hear from speakers about market trends, learn about technology and network in new locations. 

The meeting culminated with an announcement that Linnea Keen, who has led TLMI for the past five years, is resigning from the organization. COO Dale Coates is replacing her. The announcement was made during TLMI’s Printing Excellence Awards, held on the final evening of the Annual Meeting. 

New economist 

One of the most anticipated speakers at this year’s Annual Meeting was Alex Chausovsky, director of analytics and consulting at the Bundy Group. 

This was Chausovsky’s first time speaking at TLMI. He replaced Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics, who retired earlier this year. Beaulieu was a long-running speaker at TLMI events, where he had given 18 talks on the economy over the years. 

During his own economic presentation at the meeting, Chausovsky highlighted the acronym VUCA: volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. He said the economy is shifting from a state of uncertainty to one of complexity, where businesses should be prepared for a variety of different potential scenarios. Chausovsky painted a nuanced picture of the impact of tariffs, noting that their effect has not been as severe as had been predicted, but that the full impact on inflation would not be felt until next year.  

‘The United States economy is resilient, it’s vibrant, and it continues to outperform many of the other economies around the world, despite what the negativity and the rhetoric out there in the media point to,’ Chausovsky said. 

Chausovsky noted that, for the past two years, US industrial production, a more meaningful measure of the labeling industry than GDP, has seen minimal growth. Various leading economic indicators suggest that this minimal growth will continue for the next year. 

The first question Chausovsky received during the Q&A portion of his talk was about his thoughts on a potential Great Depression of the 2030s — a topic Beaulieu often discussed during his talks.  

Chausovsky shared that he used to work for ITR Economics, and while he agrees with many of the challenges underlying the Great Depression forecast — such as an aging population and high national debt — he is skeptical that a situation like the 1930s Great Depression will unfold again.   

‘I don’t see food lines the way that we had in 1929. I don’t see 20 percent unemployment rate the way that we had back in the Great Depression time,’ Chausovsky said. ‘I also see examples of countries that are further along on the curve that are battling with the same exact issues — demographic change, debt — like Japan, for instance, that have not gone off the proverbial cliff.' 

Speakers 

Also during the Annual Meeting, TLMI’s Keen moderated a converter leadership panel with Tara Halpin of Steinhauser; Charlie MacLean of ASL Print FX, an AWT Company; and Robert Park of Label King. They discussed their most impactful investments, succession planning and how they use AI at their companies. 

The Workplace Advisors president Claudia St John, a regular speaker at TLMI events, spoke about conflict resolution and communication. 

The second day of speaker sessions began with a fireside chat on automation. Bobst’s Ken Brown moderated this conversation with Andrew Boyd of Blue Label Packaging, Sean Murray of Northern Label and Keith Walz of KDV Label. They discussed automation through various steps of the production process, such as order intake, printing and data collection. 

TLMI’s Regulatory Affairs Committee chairs Patrick Potter and Tyler Matusevich spoke with Bryan Vickers of the lobbying firm Pace, providing attendees with an update on tariffs and environmental regulations. 

Simon Yeung, founder at SY Consulting, gave the final keynote at this year’s meeting, with a talk focused on sustainability. 

A well-attended event 

Keen said it was likely several factors bringing attendees to this year’s meeting in greater numbers: the timing, the location and the program itself. 

‘It’s just a nice place where everyone can come,’ Keen said. ‘They can get a sense of what is happening in the industry, what other people are seeing for trends and hear the speakers that we have.’ 

When it came to the speaker session, Keen hopes that attendees found takeaways in each presentation. 

Offering networking opportunities is also a strong focus for TLMI at these events. The association provided this through several programs, such as a tabletop speed networking session and a ‘Day at the Beach’ event, where attendees socialized at Chickee huts sponsored by different companies. 

For the first time this year, TLMI used AI to organize its speed networking event. After asking supplier and converter members what they were looking for from the program, TLMI provided that information to CoPilot to create the speed networking matches. 

‘I hope their network expanded beyond their normal TLMI friends that they come to see and their suppliers, and that they were able to make greater connections,’ Keen said.