Please find me an expert on the commercial printing industry who will
be willing to talk to me on the phone. I am willing to pay $250/hour
for the expert's time.

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Request for Question Clarification by easterangel-ga on 23 Apr 2005 13:57 PDT

Hi!

Would a list of contact information for printing industry consultants
be ok as an answer?

In cases like these pricing will be on a case to case basis and will
not be available on the website. Would the absence of pricing
information still be ok?

Thanks!

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Clarification of Question by akapadia-ga on 23 Apr 2005 16:51 PDT

Hi,
What do you mean by pricing? You mean pricing for their time?
A list is fine, but I don't want a random list of people who may not
be willing to talk to me. Would rather get a list of people who are
ready for a conversation.

Dear Akapadia, 

Interesting that you set the price on $250/hour, because this is
exactly what experts on intota usually take...

Intota, an online service brokering between freelance professional
consultants and their clients ("provides Expert Consulting and Expert
Witness services from over 10,000 industry experts covering 30,000
areas of science, engineering, regulation, and business." in their own
words), offers more than a dozen consultants on the printing industry:
Printing Industry Experts at Intota
<http://www.intota.com/site.asp?mode=addtoproject&strTermID=0070573> 
Intota's main page
<http://www.intota.com/> 

Intota is by far your best possibility. Other options that I list here
are less relevant, but brought to your attention.

Another option is to go to eLance, a service listing freelancers.
Their range of experts in your field is somewhat limited, but it could
be a good idea to check this site anyways:
eLance
<http://www.elance.com/c/static/main/displayhtml.pl?&file=eol.html&module=home>

However, quite frankly, since most of their experts are in fact
experts for managements in general, or printing companies. In this
case, you'd be better off  (and excuse me for the shameless
self-promotion) if you'd posted the questions you've got here, on
Google Answers. We have several fine business researchers, who'd might
be able to answer your question.

In addition, Business.com list in their directory 
Printing Industry Franchise Consultants 
<http://www.business.com/directory/small_business/franchising/consultants/by_industry/printing/>

Printing Consultants
<http://www.business.com/directory/media_and_entertainment/publishing/printing/consultants/>


Graphic Arts Marketing Information Service (GAMIS) 
<http://www.gain.net/>
"GAMIS, a special industry group of the Printing Industries of
America, is the premier market research association of the graphic
arts industry. Members are from diverse segments of the printing
industry and they receive over $200,000 in proprietary market
research/information studies. This equates to about five studies per
year in return for their annual dues ranging from $3,000 to $7,000,
depending upon sales volume. The RIT Library, by special arrangement
with GAMIS, receives free copies of these industry studies that are
available for students and faculty at the Reserve Desk." (I cannot
guarentee that this would cost $250 an hour).

Further Resources
-----------------
Speciality Graphic Imaging Association
http://www.sgia.org/

National Association for Printing Leadership
<http://www.napl.org/home.aspx> 

British Printing Industries Federation
<http://www.britishprint.com/> 

I hope this answers your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it. My search strategy
was, first, to rely on my own knowlegde in this field; and second, to
search for terms such as :
["printing industry" experts consultants]

What country are we talking about here? England?... Australia? ... Germany?...
Depending, of course, on the nature of your intended 'conversation'
have you considered contacting editorial staff of one of the better
printing industry publications? You will (hopefully) find that they
require expertise in order to write for the industry and if they can't
help you, then they will certainly have a network of information
sources. Failing that, what about contacting a PR department for any
of the major printing trade exhibitions e.g. DRUPA, PacPrint, etc.
They might be able to put you in touch with an appropriate printer
person.

I am talking about the US. What are the relevant printing industry
publications? Can you give me some names? And also the trade pubs?
Thanks.

http://www.heidelberg.com/www/pages/content.jsp?contentID=1605

Here's a list of industry titles from the Heidleberg web site.

http://www.guru.com/

I can help you to find printing industry consultant from Pakistan at
much cheaper prices than you asked for.If interestred,please let me
know what exectly are your requirements.
Regards
Ijaz Ahmad
----------

Thanks for the websites. I need someone who is familiar with the US
market and is able to talk knowledgably about industry dynamics,
competitive strengths of various large players (e.g., Quebecor World,
Cenveo, ACG, etc.), trends, capacity,   key factors that drive
competitive success, etc. In other words, I need someone who can talk
to me about the business aspects of the commercial printing industry
in the US.

Do you have your website so I can understand your 
buisiness exectly and can guide you propoerly.
Ijaz Ahmad