The future of print isn’t something that’s happening down the road. It’s taking shape right now through the decisions businesses make about their people, technology, operations, marketing, and leadership.
At the 2026 PINE Leadership Conference in York, Maine, industry leaders came together to explore those decisions and share practical solutions for moving their businesses forward. Across the conference, several themes continued to surface: embrace change intentionally, invest in people, reduce dependency on individual leaders, use technology to solve real business challenges, and start preparing today for what comes next.
Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the conversations.
Breaking Down Silos and Building Stronger Teams
The conference began with a Collaboration Café and Debrief, moderated by Paul Critchley of New England Lean Consulting, where attendees shared their own experiences and challenges.
One of the biggest topics was navigating a multigenerational workforce. Attendees discussed the challenge of getting the next generation invested in the business, bridging generational differences, and breaking down walls between departments. Team building, cross-department collaboration, and even social activities outside of day-to-day work were discussed as ways to strengthen relationships.
One comment captured an important workforce lesson: “You can train skills, not attitudes.”
The group also explored AI, including how it can serve as a scaffold that helps employees build and improve their work without giving up ownership of the final product. The larger takeaway was that businesses need to be willing to step outside the box, diversify, and look at the organization as a whole when preparing for the future.
Rethinking How Customers Find Your Business
Patrick Whelan of Great Reach Communications explored how AI-powered search is changing the buying process and what that means for printers trying to generate new business.
Increasingly, the buyer is finding you before your sales team ever has an opportunity to make contact. That makes your digital presence an extension of your sales team.
The solution isn’t simply creating more content. It’s optimizing useful content so it matches the language, questions, and intent of prospective customers. Websites should make information easy to find with concise blocks of content rather than walls of text, FAQs, internal links, and connected content clusters.
Reviews can become source material, and content should work across web, social media, email, and print. Most importantly, businesses should focus on providing answers rather than simply publishing lists of information.
Takeaway: Look at your website from your customer’s perspective. Does it quickly answer the questions they are actually asking, and does it clearly communicate the expertise and competitive advantages that make your company different?
Succession Planning Starts with Connection
Alyssa Baldino of Trend Business Solutions brought succession planning to life by sharing her own experience of joining a business with the intention of eventually purchasing it and becoming its owner.
Her story highlighted the importance of creating a strong connection between the current and future owner, along with transparency throughout the purchase process, mentoring, and time for the future owner to understand existing employees, customers, processes, and policies.
With an aging workforce and changing demographics, succession also presents an opportunity to connect aspiring owners with established businesses. Local organizations and regional trade associations can play an important role in creating those connections.
Takeaway: Succession does not have to mean starting over. With planning, mentoring, and the right match, an established business can provide the next generation with a foundation to build upon while giving current owners a path toward transition.
Turning AI into a Practical Business Tool
Mike Lannen of Eternity took attendees beyond the AI hype and into practical ways printers can put the technology to work.
AI can function almost like an additional teammate, assisting with research, personalization, estimating, mock-ups, SOP creation, meeting notes, inbox management, and even work leading up to going to press.
Effective AI use also requires moving beyond basic prompting. The session introduced the RISE framework: Role, Instructions, Steps, and Examples, along with the concept of teaching AI specific skills and rules.
But implementation also requires guardrails. One particularly important takeaway was the need for an organizational AI usage policy, especially when employees may be using free public AI tools with company or customer information.
Takeaway: Don’t implement AI simply because it’s available. Identify repetitive or time-consuming work where it can create measurable value, establish clear policies, and train employees to use the technology effectively.
Creating a Workplace Where Gen Z Wants to Stay
Recruiting younger employees is only half the challenge. Keeping them is just as important.
Samantha Borsari of Employers Association of the Northeast explored the expectations and communication preferences of Gen Z and how companies can rethink onboarding to improve retention.
Five components stood out: intentional introductions, an open-door policy, mentorship and shadowing, consistent feedback, and explaining the purpose behind the work.
Perhaps the simplest solution is also one of the most powerful: ask employees what they need to be successful.
Takeaway: Onboarding shouldn’t be an administrative checklist. Make it an intentional experience that creates connections, provides purpose, and demonstrates from day one that the organization is invested in an employee’s success.
Make the Business Easier to Operate and More Valuable
Whether an owner plans to grow or eventually exit, many of the same fundamentals make a business stronger.
Alyssa Summers and John Bracamontes of Pryntbase focused on three areas that can multiply business value: operations, marketing, and sales. They also emphasized that AI itself isn’t a strategy. Businesses first need to identify the right work and then determine where technology can make that work easier or more effective.
Their homework for attendees was refreshingly straightforward:
- Operations: Document one task.
- Marketing: Pick one channel and post once per week.
- Sales: Call your top 20 customers.
The lesson was simple: transformation doesn’t always require a massive initiative. Small, deliberate improvements can begin moving the business in the right direction.
Succession Is About More Than Ownership
Chris Yonker of the Center for Conscious Living and Fulfillment explored an often overlooked side of succession planning: the human side.
Every owner will eventually transition out of their business in some form, and waiting to prepare can reduce the options available. Effective succession planning therefore needs to consider three interconnected areas: ownership, leadership, and the human element.
One of the most important questions raised was: Could the organization thrive without you?
When an owner continually solves problems, employees learn to escalate problems to that owner. The owner becomes the hero, the team’s development slows, and the organization remains dependent on one person. That dependency isn’t just a succession challenge. It’s a business-value challenge.
Future leaders also need more than technical expertise. Knowing the business isn’t necessarily the same as knowing how to lead it.
Takeaway: Identify where the business still depends too heavily on its owner or a few key individuals. Develop future leaders, transfer knowledge, and have the difficult conversations now rather than waiting until a transition is underway.
Build the Workforce You’ll Need Next
The workforce conversation continued with Alex McLean of SecureTek Solutions, who looked at the changing labor market and the challenges manufacturers face as experienced workers retire and institutional knowledge leaves with them.
Retention strategies discussed included benefits, cross-training, flexibility, growth and leadership opportunities, project ownership, professional development, and competitive wages. Companies can also build their future candidate pipelines through internships, co-ops, job postings, and research.
One of the most valuable questions for employers was whether they are hiring for today’s need or tomorrow’s.
Instead of waiting until a position becomes critical, businesses can proactively build candidate pools, transfer knowledge, and think about the skills they will need next.
Preparing for the Future Starts Now
If there was one message connecting the conversations throughout the conference, it was that preparing for the future doesn’t require solving everything at once.
Document one process. Mentor one future leader. Improve one part of your onboarding experience. Identify one repetitive task AI could simplify. Call your best customers. Start transferring knowledge before someone retires. Ask employees what they need to succeed.
Small steps can address much larger challenges.
The future of print will continue to bring changes in technology, workforce expectations, buyer behavior, ownership, and operations. Businesses that intentionally prepare for those changes, while continuing to invest in their people and strengthen their organizations, will be better equipped to navigate whatever comes next.
That is where the value of coming together as an industry becomes clear. The PINE Leadership Conference wasn’t simply about identifying the challenges facing print. It was about sharing ideas, learning from one another, and leaving with practical solutions that leaders can put into action in their businesses today.
Missed This Year? Mark Your Calendar for 2027!
If you missed this year’s Leadership Conference, you’ll have another opportunity to be part of the conversations, connections, and solutions shaping the future of print.
Save the date for the 2027 PINE Leadership Conference, October 21–22, at the Inn on Boltwood in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Mark your calendar now, and plan to join fellow industry leaders for another opportunity to step away from the day-to-day, exchange ideas with your peers, and discover practical solutions to help move your business forward.
