Wide-format Blogs

It’s the last day the Hunkeler Innovationdays in Lucerne today, where the focus has been very much on the theme of next level automation - such a key strategic consideration for so many in the print industry. It’s also the last day of EuroShop 2023 in Dusseldorf and I’m wondering if you’ve been? Given the size and scope of this retail trade fair and importance of the retail sector to ours, I assume some of you have. It would be great to hear whether you thought it a worthwhile visit, and if there are any key takeaways worth noting. You can probably anticipate what I’m about to say on that score - how do we get more of a spotlight on envelope-pushing print application possibilities at events that are not ‘ours’ but where there’s such a fabulous chance of wowing such a key customer-base?

Fespa’s decision to get rid of Printeriors as a physical part of the Fespa Global Expo and instead provide an online version accessible at a touch of a button to anyone in the interiors space seems a logical move to me. I’ve long held the view that what is intrinsically a print trade show is not the best place to try and entice non-insiders full stop - and that if we want to show off physical representations of what we’re capable of we should be going into the spaces already trodden by those we’re trying to reach. We also need to be showing more boundary-pushing offerings to grab attention - be that physically or online - don’t we?

Can you help? The BPIF is struggling to find a trainer to support with the delivery of apprenticeships within the sector. The federation is specifically looking for someone based in the south/south west/west region. Details are available on the BPIF website. If you think you might fit the bill please contact Karly Lattimore, MD BPIF Training.

79% of employees will quit due to lack of appreciation according to new stats from Zippia, and according to Scott Agnew, author of ‘Long Term Leader’, the answer is a new leadership approach focusing on empathy, tenderness and understanding. Now, I’m all for managers displaying those attributes, but when it comes to appreciation nothing to my mind talks louder than money - and the BPIF’s latest Printing Outlook survey (for Q4 2022) shows that a third of respondents reported that they had conducted a pay review in Q4, resulting in an average 5.2% pay increase. How does that reflect pay rises within your own company - and does your pay strategy prove you’re empathetic and appreciative enough of your staff to retain them?

With WTTB announcing its new range of coronation party merchandise and event memorabilia I’d like to hear from any of you involved in producing wide/large-format print for the occasion. It would be great to be able to have our own little celebration of those involved.

Where do we now stand on deinking wide-format digital inkjet materials? It’s a question we’ve no doubt all asked many times before and no doubt will continue to ask as the industry progresses, but news that Seigwerk is collaborating with various parties to deink plastic packaging waste is hopefully a sign that things are now moving at a quicker pace. Any idea of when we’ll see really serious moves regarding deinking capability across other - plastic-based or otherwise -  print waste?

“You’re fired!” I can’t wait for someone at the BBC to say that to Lord Alan Sugar after what feels like the 478th series of The Apprentice, a TV show that sheds about as much light on running a small company as Jack and the Beanstalk does on the forest products industry. For me, Sugar is a one-hit wonder, or maybe one-and-a-half hit wonder (Amstrad plus making satellite dishes for Rupert Murdoch), the Kajagoogoo of British business. To my mind his enduring profile says more about the paucity of the media’s imagination, than it does about his actual achievements or indeed the quality of British management.

I’m loving what KGK Genix is doing about trying to interest more youngsters in a career in print and the associated areas of retail design and visual merchandising. Running a programme with a local college that sees students understand all that’s involved in a prestigious live campaign - and getting on-site experience to boot - sounds a fab idea. Can we do something similar on a wider, sector co-ordinated scale?

Barbieri opens nominations today for its Excellence Award 2023, which are open to customers, partners and organisations within the extended Barbieri ecosystem (i.e. universities, research organisations) that work with those in the professional digital printing industry. Categories include business performance, innovation and research, and advocacy and trust - just thought that was an interesting range and wondering how many PSPs enter awards for categories other for actual print and/or environmental development.

A visit to a small town theatre with a fab curtained backdrop - hand painted not digitally printed - had me again wondering how many people outside of the obvious wide-format print client list know about its creative potential. How do we get our message out to that wider audience of potential new customers. I’ve many a time mooted the idea of a ‘pavillion of possibilities’ that we as an industry put together and can take to various fairs etc. to show off our capability, but can that be done?

I read a very interesting LinkedIn message from FaberExposize UK MD Iain Clasper-Cotte on Friday, outlining the pitfalls of driving an electric car. His frustration was palpable – and I’ve heard from others who are just as concerned that the infrastructure just isn’t yet ready to support a wholesale switch to electric vehicles, halting many a company’s greening-up journey. What are your thoughts?

It’s been confirmed that Clerkenwell Design Week returns to London on 23-25 May. This promises to be the most ambitious iteration to date - with more exhibition venues, showroom partners, installations and brand-new design destinations to get stuck into. You might want to pop over to EC1 and check it out, even if only to rub shoulders with those in the global interior design community. 

Is it worth forking out £345 (£245 for members) to attend POPAI’s Retail Marketing Conference in London on 8 February? If you have retail clients it probably is given the speaker line-up and the topics being covered, such as ‘Making POS pop! with AI’ presented by James Waterworth, head of trade marketing, AB-Inbev and Phil Barden, MD, Decode. The event website gives you the full run-down, but I thought I’d bring it to your attention.

As you read this Fespa UK will be hosting a group of the industry’s youth to help them learn new skills while having a bit of fun. Importantly, the sessions will also be something of fact-finding mission for Fespa UK, to suss out what the youngsters want to focus on in upcoming networking/training meetings, and to see if any of them are happy to sit on a new ‘Next Generation’ committee in the embryonic stages of formation. Perhaps you have enthusiastic young people who would be interested in getting involved. If so, I’m sure Fespa UK MD Suzie Ward would like to hear from them.