Some of my observations....

Thanx for that, would love to hear from others, since I could not be there.

I felt the attendance was much lower this year, especially at the Awards Dinner which is a shame because the entertainment was awsome. Search Chris Bliss on YouTube and you will get an idea of what I mean. You can see his juggling there but his comedy was even better.

Regarding the new color boxes...the issue really isn't A3 vs A4, it is the issue of price and the assumption is that you can't get a lower price without giving up the ability to do 11x17. It may be true but Ricoh promises to be competitive despite having 11x17. I was told that the new low end color will be $2,000 cheaper (retail) than the current counterparts. Now they may do like they did with the new wide format color scanner and have a lower retail but no margin...won't know until we get pricing.

Ricoh put a lot of emphasis on environmental issues. Expect to hear more about Ricoh's Cradle-to-Cradle philosophy. I personally am not one that believes that climate change is manmade. However, our job is to fulfill the needs and wishes of our prospects and to that end, Ricoh has what it takes. No company within our industry (and few without) can claim anywhere close to the same record as Ricoh can. Ricoh says (and I believe it despite my personal beliefs) that 75% of the public will buy green when they perceive that quality and price are equal. Solution selling can mean a lot of things and for some companies, it may be providing a solution that includes recycling of toner bottles and end-of-life demanufacturing. In the past I have tuned out such rhetoric but I beleive now that is a mistake. We have a lot to offer in this area with much more to come. Be watching for the Ricohvalue.com website where you will be able to calculate things such as how many extra trees are necessary to print to an HP vs a Ricoh. (derived from Power=Energy=Carbon Emmissions=footprint, etc.)

Other thoughts about the show.
CAP - Card Authorization Package which allows an employee identification cards to provide network authentication into the system.
You owe it to yourselves to investigate DigiDocFlow. Very low cost embedded Document Management Solution
Ricoh has a new (and according to Ricoh exclusive) offering that allows a user to email a print job to a device. The user then gets an email reply with the release code. They then go to the device, type in the code and out comes the print job. This is designed for use with internet hotspots. I can't tell you how often I wish I could print out an attachment that I have received on my BlackBerry but can't view because of the small screen. With this, I could walk into a Books-a-Million that has this and walk out with the print.
The new MFP Platform is called Cosmos.
Be watching for Big Bang information coming the week of November 17-21. During this week, Ricoh will be launching the new color boxes in 25 different cities.
Ricoh's new selling strategy is called REV = Real Enhanced Value. Part of this initiative is 5 websites:
ricohconnects.com for training
ricohpresents.com for PowerPoint presentations
ricohproposes.com replaces eTools
ricohsaves.com replaces the COG Calculater
ricohvalue.com to calculate environmental impacts of decisions as well as present vs proposed calculations.
All of these offer significant enhancements over their predecessors except for ricohvalue which is new.

I got this from somewhere, I think industry pub.

Conclusion
Ricoh Vision 2008 was an impressive event that helped dealers and analysts understand many of the corporation’s upcoming initiatives. Among other focuses, dealers were reassured that IKON would not de-stabilize their businesses. Dealers were educated on new value-added services and solutions offerings, and notified that supply chain and sales-channel-conflict issues were being rapidly and proactively
addressed. Although few new product announcements were made, the goal of the event—to secure deeper relationships and trust with dealers—was at least anecdotally met based on conversations with attendees.

Of course, the reality may be more complicated. With the IKON acquisition now closed and Ricoh
making moves to consolidate costs in light of less-than-spectacular earnings, there is always the question of how resources will really be devoted when it comes to ―leveling the playing field‖ for the channel. If dealers will be relegated to sell primarily to smaller businesses, why tease them with production-level
devices? In addition, what is the forward-looking strategy for retaining dealers that have been and will continue to be courted by competitors, such as Canon and Konica Minolta? Despite the economy, the current environment seemingly provides a great opportunity for dual-line dealers to negotiate and push
the limits of their profitability.

I've stated this a few years ago and still stick by it. I think Ricoh will keep all high performing dealers as Ricoh dealers.

Thus any under performing dealers will be asked to take on Lanier or Savin. End result IKON, RBS to dominate fortune companies with sprinkling of mega Ricoh dealers. Lanier and Savin dealers left to compete for SBM's. My two cents worth.

The observations provided by 'Old Glory' concerning Vision 2008 are similar to the general feedback from the Savin Connections 2009 National Dealer Sales Meeting during February 2009. This Savin Connections had the lowest Dealer attendance ever, even with tremendous change within Ricoh and the industry. The tone was somewhat more somber and the length of the meeting was cut down to two days.

Taken from an article about Savin Connections 2009 in the latest Cannata Report:

"In a large organization, implementing a consistent corporate strategy is very difficult. There are always those individuals who think they know better, and therefore will pull in another direction. There are also those who simply do not have the capacity to execute the stated corporate direction. In other words, they are in over their heads. Ricoh's problems are not external - they are internal."

"I have already heard from Lanier and Savin dealers about the change in the sales support structure. It has not been very positive."

The Cannata article hits hard on those important points but is too soft on the big picture.

For example, it is the 50th Anniversary of Savin and it was not mentioned once during the Meeting, which should have celebrated SAVIN and it's DEALERS.

Savin Dealers (and Ricoh and Lanier Dealers) know too well where the Ricoh ship has set sail for and it will not be Safe Harbor for them.

Forgive me, there is a 50th Anniversary notation on the latest Savin Connection newsletter. I still think the Savin brand is going away and news next week will demonstrate closer movement in that direction.