Here's a question I received via email the other day. Though this would be good to share for all of the newbies on the site.
Hi Art,
I’ve had a couple of folks up here ask the origins of your name p4p hotel. I thought I had read it somewhere a couple of years back, but cannot remember where it was.
Can you please cut & paste a couple of lines explaining how/why you use P4PHotel name on your website and blog?
Ah, yes, many have asked about the origin of the name. Many moons ago at the dawning of the digital copier age, there was a web based application that Ricoh used for configuration of their digital copiers. That site was called "Connectivity CafÉ".
At or around 2003, I posted a thread which bashed Ricoh in their Aficio League (they had a forum then) in reference to the first of one of the first 80ppm production copier that was a real dog. The system could not reproduce half tones very well, I was ok with that, what I was not OK with, is the that Ricoh new that system would not do half tones well and still brought it to market. Ricoh was not happy with that thread and banned me from the forums for my statement. And all that time I thought there was Freedom of the Press! LOL.
Back in 02 & before, you knew what you knew from the people in your organization and you believed in the manufacturer that there were no little white lies. There was no forum on the web for sales people and dealer principles to share information, like what's works, what doesn't work.
Eventually the dealer owner lobbied for me to get back on the site, however with a covenant that I couldn't post anything bad about Ricoh products. That did not sit well with me because of my experience with a bad system and I really never wanted to lose a sale because I did not know enough knowledge.
That, was the start of the Print4Pay Hotel, the P4PHotel is the abbreviated version. I figured I could do it better than Ricoh and would give sales people and dealer owners the forum to express, share and collaborate with others with out any censorship from a manufacturer. Guess I did a great job!
When thinking of the name for the site, I wanted something catchy, I liked the Connectivity CafÉ web app and wanted something similar. Question: In order to print or copy businesses and people have to do what?...........Answer: You have to "Pay", pay for paper, pay for hardware, pay for supplies, you can't print with out paying for something. Thus, I had the first part of the name, Print4Pay. I thought of the Hotel piece due to the fact that people were coming to the site to share information, ask questions, and give feedback. Which led me to the "Hotel" addition. We all go to conferences to share information, glean information and collaborate with others, most of these events are held in Hotels. Thus, I'm providing an on-line web forum where imaging sales professionals gather. The Print4Pay Hotel, sounded like an awesome fit for a cool name.
There are still many Legacy members here on the site, and I'd like to thank all of them for their support over the last 13 years, could not have done this with out their commitment to share their knowledge and believe in the value of the site! Kudos!
-=Good Selling=-
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