Kyocera Document Solutions America Inc. marked the start of a new era with the celebration of a successful dealer conference with its partners. The three-day event, taking place in San Antonio, Texas, brought together more than 850 attendees from 225 dealers, various vendor partners and almost 20 industry media outlets across the United States, the company's Latin America division covering central and southern America and the Caribbean, and representatives of the company from its global headquarters in Japan.

Under the theme of REIMAGINE, Kyocera revealed its vision and plan for their future evolution and growth alongside its partners. Defining the theme, Natalie Cumberbatch, vice president of human resources, explained that "reimagine is about not accepting what we have. It's about wanting to make it better, wanting to build a brighter future."

"To be in the company of so many of our partners after three years apart has been a real pleasure, and we couldn't have hoped to do it in a better way than with REIMAGINE," said Óscar Sánchez, president and CEO, Kyocera Document Solutions America, as he reflected on the event. "I would like to thank all of those who joined us to make this a truly unforgettable experience. It gave us an opportunity to present our strategy and plans for the future of our organization, including how we hope to grow in partnership with our dealers."

As part of the company's General Session, Kyocera Document Solutions Inc.'s President and Representative Director Hironori Ando discussed the company's performance worldwide and gave some sneak peeks into upcoming product launches.

Sánchez then presented a personal and insightful vision of the future of Kyocera. "Today, our products are as good as any of our competitors, if not better, and our corporation is financially stronger than all of them," he said. "I am not a complacent person, or willing to accept the status quo, so I resist accepting the current role we have in our industry."

Speaking only 55 days after joining the company, Vice President of Channel Sales Don DuVall highlighted his first ambitions since joining Kyocera. Among them included a new Dealer Engagement Program targeted at improving communication, speed and agility in how Kyocera works with its partners.

In addition, Vice President of Customer Operations Frank Zupa shared updates with a brand-new Exchange Warranty program and a new approach to interterritorial sales with an interterritorial network. 

"This is only the beginning of a lot of great change that we are planning so we can be the easiest company to do business with," Zupa said.

He was joined by Vice President of Corporate Marketing José Estébanez, who announced the upcoming launch of 22 new devices and support for dealers looking to launch e-commerce platforms. As part of his speech, he underlined that Kyocera's "intention is to help everyone to respond to a growing market demand and we will be sharing our expertise and tools" to exploit opportunities in e-commerce and subscription services.

Also speaking was Matt Charlson, President & CEO of DataBank, a Kyocera Group company, who gave a preview of the DataBank Cloud, which will provide foundations for Kyocera's content technology for years to come.

Finally, the event wrapped up with keynote speaker Magic Johnson, who discussed the need to be ready for change. He linked his speech to Kyocera's philosophy and his own career, embracing change to take advantage of opportunities to achieve growth.

Following on from that, the event included a Technology Fair which featured a range of solutions from office technology, to services and solutions, to production printing. Visitors were able to get to grips with the solutions up close and personal with demonstrations from product experts.

Attendees were also invited to an open panel discussion with the company's leadership team in order to quiz and challenge them on their queries. Among the topics raised were the back-order situation, inkjet production printing and Kyocera's future plans, with Sánchez leading the transparent response alongside his team.

The rest of the event included ongoing educational tracks and access sessions, and tours for analysts and media present, allowing dealer partners and media to learn the details on specific areas from experts, such as digital marketing, recruitment, e-commerce, subscription services and more.

"The feedback we have received from our dealers, partners and media guests has been astounding, and it's essential that we remember that this is only the beginning for us," Sánchez said. "We want to make this a before and after moment for our organization, defining the future of our company and setting a new bar for our ambitions."