Blogs

What Fespa is doing to fund print training in Turkey is commendable – and understandable given the scope for development and growth of Eurasia’s print markets, where vendors (and Fespa exhibitors?) can no doubt see much potential. I constantly hear of skills gaps and lack of appropriate training courses for the large-format community here also. It will be interesting to see if this well established market proves an educational investment lure for Fespa too.

As inkjet continues its quest for worldwide domination, which developments do you consider most likely to impact upon your wide-format print business – either positively or negatively? And would you be happy to openly discuss the matter with your peers?

Two Sides and Print Power do a fab job of educating the market about the real sustainability story of print, but it’s worrying that the ‘save the environment, don’t print’ messages seem to be gaining renewed momentum. Any bright ideas about how we can fight back any harder than we already are?

If you can make it into London on 30 June get yourself down to the St Bride Bar where you can network with gusto. I won’t make it this time as I’ll be on my summer hols, but let me know of any pertinent themes thrown up by the evening if you think they’re worth investigating in Image Reports.

If you’re considering a move into soft signage or textile printing for interiors it may well be worth getting a trip to Milan pencilled into your diary for 2 October. We don’t have the detail yet, but having spoken with Fespa CEO Neil Felton at Fespa Digital the other week, the Fespa Digital Textile Conference sounds like being a useful place to talk to other like-minded people on the nitty-gritty impact on your business – not just about its blue sky potential.

Remember TalkingPrint, the integrated sound and print specialist whose joint founder was the subject of an early Talking Point video interview (http://www.imagereportsmag.co.uk/videos?start=12)? Well, the company is showing off some more boundary pushing work at Marketing Week Live in London’s Olympia later this month. Will you be exhibiting your company’s print potential at this or any other show this year? Drop me a line if you are.

Were you one of the 16,766 visitors to Fespa Digital last week – and if so, did you buy anything? What was it? Yes, I am being nosy, because I want to see if actual order patterns mirror the prospective purchasing trends thrown up by the 2014 Widthwise Survey we conducted in the Spring. Intention is one thing, handing over the cash could well be something altogether different!

Well done to PressOn and Raccoon London for their wins at the Fespa Awards last night. It’s always great to see UK companies pushing those print boundaries. If you think you are too, let me know. The Image Reports’ ‘Think Bigger’ website has gone live this week so I’ll be on he hunt for innovative wide-format projects to put up in front of the creatives - for whom the new site is intended. Just give me a shout if you think you’re doing something that will make their jaws drop in amazement.

…what wide-format related product/service would you give it to? I ask because there were a number of EDP Awards categories that failed to attract groundbreaking-enough nominations to merit winners. For instance, no award was made for ‘Best Rip Solution for Wide-Format’, or even for ‘Best Wide-Format Printer 1.6m+’. It may just be that some of the most innovative products weren’t entered – or it may be that R&D has plateaued in certain areas. Perhaps Fespa Digital will bring us some surprises…

What kind of event would have you clambering over your competitors to attend? The newly ‘realigned’ Drupa 2016? As the print industry changes shape, there’s little doubt that the ‘traditional’ trade shows are having to change with it. But how do you want them to develop? Would you rather attend vertical market shows where you’ll mingle with potential customers rather than look at kit? Where you – or perhaps a representative body from the digital wide-format sector – can even exhibit and show those involved in strategic market sectors just what boundary-pushing work we can do for them? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I popped over to NoeCha in Italy at the end of last week where the company was unveiling its first UV flatbed printer. With prices starting at 400,000 Euro for this 13.5 tonne machine, it’s a hefty investment in more ways than one, and seems more suited to being customised for industrial applications, although it’s being targeted at the graphic arts market too. What are your thoughts? 

I have to start this editorial with a massive thank you. That 343 large-format print providers from across the UK and Ireland took the trouble to complete the 2014 Widthwise Survey was astounding. It means the newly published seventh annual Widthwise Report, based on the data from that survey, is truly representative of the sector and its issues.

Got to say, I was unimpressed when I received a marketing email from Kall Kwik saying it was offering half price posters during May. Given that the chain’s strapline is “creative printing, clever thinking” you would think it could come up with a more novel way of getting customers to ‘think big’ about large-format printing, as the email encouraged. Are we our own worst enemies?