What Does It Mean to be a Pioneer?

I recently received the Pioneer of Direct Marketing Award from the Kansas City Direct Marketing Association. My first thought was, “This really is about everyone at NextPage.” My next thought was, “Are they saying I’m old?”

I love words and I love the Dictionary. Whenever I wonder what a word really means, I hear my daddy say, “Girl, go look it up.”

Wow…I guess it doesn’t mean I’m old.

As I think about the honor of this award, I think back to the people who helped create NextPage including my co-owners, my brother Eric Danner and business partner Larry Wittmeyer, Jr. They bought into our branding statement; “by leading our clients beyond the printed page to more effective communications with their clients we will redefine the printing industry.” They get the dollars are in the data and are committed to investing in that vision.

Our awesome customer service and account management professionals at NextPage who go out and tell our story all day long to people who sometimes don’t believe a printer can really be a marketing leader. They are told “NO” on occasion and yet each day they get up and go out and repeat their efforts.

Our Production Team is off the charts the best in the business. I have seen these folks move heaven and earth and make things happen for our clients. On more than a few occasions, they have met impossible deadlines, worked long shifts, changed family plans, and gone above and beyond because what they do matters to our clients and all the people who work at our client companies.

Our amazing IT and Data professionals continue to push the envelope and write code to do things that no one else could figure out how to make happen. They have pushed software to its limits and beyond all with the goal of creating big wins for our clients. You know you’ve done something special when the authors of the industry-leading variable data printing software don’t believe their software could generate a variable book with over 1,000 variable elements.

And of course there are all the support people making things happen that just “have to happen” to keep a business running and organized. Their work is important and allows the rest of us to keep moving forward.

Time and time again the NextPage team creates and develops new ideas and methods, all with the focus of creating value for our clients. They are truly pioneers.

Pioneer Award Speech