Towards the end of January Fespa will bring its annual Global Summit to the UK. And this year, Fespa is throwing open the doors to what has previously been an ‘invite only’ event for the industry’s top brass. It’s where the great and the good meet to take the temperature of the wide-format market and discuss the way forward. So is it worth putting your hand in your pocket to get an insider’s perspective at the 2013 summit? I ask Fespa’s Duncan MacOwan, what’s in it for printers?
So Duncan, firstly, why has Fespa decided to turn what was an ‘invite only’ event into a ‘pay and enter’ package. Is it purely down to economics?
Of course. Just to be clear, the Summit still represents a significant investment from Fespa and our sponsors, as we look to support PSPs looking to grow their business. The Summit has always been part of Fespa’s Profit for Purpose programme.
The main reason for switching it from an invite only to a more open event is to broaden attendance and allow the content be accessed by as many as possible. In terms of content, we’ve had feedback from over 90% of past attendees who have rated the event as either very good or excellent.
How have you decided on the pricing for the event - which I’m sure will seem a little steep to many in the sector?
We’ve very carefully considered the pricing for this event and we firmly believe it represents excellent value for money. The prices we are charging will only partially cover the real cost of each individual’s attendance – the remainder will be covered by Fespa and event sponsors.
We’re charging €645 for members of a Fespa Association (such as Fespa UK) and €795 for non-members but the total price of each individual delegate place is well over 6,000 Euro in value.
In terms of what you get for your money, there are two days of content, access to all the networking opportunities the programme provides such as lunches, receptions and gala dinner. In addition to that delegates are offered copies of two lots of Fespa research: Fespa ‘Wider Opportunities and Fespa ‘World Wide Survey’. You also get VIP status at Fespa 2013, access to on-demand viewing of all the sessions from the Summit. And perhaps one of the strongest reasons to attend is the opportunity engage with buyers of print from brands such as Unilever, Samsung, Tesco and leading agencies such as TWA, Saatchi and Saatchi etc. – people who control millions of pounds in print spend on an annual basis.
Your marketing collateral says ‘200 leading printers’ will attend this third Global Summit. So are these people you will invite free of charge because you think it’s necessary to have them there to make the event work as a think tank?
The Summit is only open to PSPs and their customers to attend as delegates. Suppliers to the print sector can attend but only as sponsors.
The Summit has grown – we had just over 100 attendees at Miami in 2010, 153 in Barcelona last year. This year we’re looking for 200 people to attend – roughly 60% printers, 10% speakers and staff, another 10% press, about 15% print buyers and about 5% sponsor representatives.
We strongly believe in sharing information up and down the print value chain so there will be many senior people from PSPs in attendance, but what we’ve learned from previous Summits, is that people also want more brands and agencies so that is a group where we’re looking to grow attendance.
You will still be hosting VIPs as ‘invited guests’ I presume?
Yes, we have a handful of VIP places available and they will be awarded at Fespa’s discretion. It is a global event so past Summits have seen attendants from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, China, South and North America as well as from across Europe.
Networking is a key part of the Summit of course and there’s plenty of time in the programme to do that informally. But what about the formal content? How have you decided upon themes and speakers – and will any of them be from your ‘invited’ printer line-up?
As you mention, networking is a key part of attending any event and we’re paying great attention to detail in facilitating that at the Summit – for example, the seating arrangement during the formal part of the presentation is at round tables rather than in lines of chairs where you can only speak to the person on your left or right.
The formal content is a mix of formats to stimulate debate and there are five main themes but ultimately it’s all about helping people grow and develop their business. So we’ll look at vertical market sectors, have business building workshops, look at how to integrate print with other media channels, focus on sustainability, and finally we’ll have a customer insight session – were the brand owners and customers engage with the group and share some of their thoughts on how they use print today and see themselves using it in the future.
Really what we want people to understand is that the market opportunities are there. We want them to understand what they are, what some of the pitfalls are in perhaps trying to enter those markets and what kind of a fit – or not – that they would be to their businesses.
From the general business perspective, we firmly believe that all need strong leadership, and that’s where the business building skills workshops come in. So we have global experts who have worked with companies such as Coca Cola, offering leadership training, sales and marketing, social media etc. – the different areas that a business leader needs to be aware of and be expert in.
We’ve mentioned the integration of print in other channels, and that’s a key part of development. Whether you offer products and services online or not, it’s the way agencies and brands look at their communication. It’s not through a single channel – but as an integrated campaign. Print can be a very important part of that but you need to understand the other parts of the channel.
The sustainability part of the Summit will include feedback from all part of the supply chain so everyone can understand what is meant by the term and what it means to their business - and whether they are looking to start out on that path or fine tune what they’re already doing there’s something for everyone there.
Perhaps most significant will be the input from brands and agencies as to how they use print.
Can you tell us a bit more about how the two-day programme will be weighted?
It’s a carefully crafted blend of formats to deliver a mix of content in a compelling way – and what its really all about is delivering worthwhile business outcomes for everyone who attends. So we’ve not just considered the programme carefully, but we’ve invested in the speakers and a speaker support programme (training regarding presenting skills etc.) so that not only do we have real experts delivering really useful insights but that they deliver them in an engaging way so that everyone gets clear takeaways from each session.
Each of the five main sessions will be prefaced with a snapshot session giving the key facts and headline figures for that particular part of the programme/industry and the talks are punctuated with refresh sessions and panel debate, and also break-out workshops to make sure everyone is fully engaged.
I’m always cynical of events labelled ‘must attend’! But the last two Summits have me edging towards that description. It’s clear that the attendees get a lot of food for thought from the event. So what does Fespa hope to get out of this 2013 event specifically and to what end?
The Summit represents quite a significant investment by Fespa in terms of both time and money so the key internal objectives are for Fespa to connect with key individuals throughout the stakeholder value chain to foster and share understanding between the different groups.
Secondly we want to provide PSPs with useful support as they look to grow their business and their bottom line.
We also want to promote awareness within the end user community of the value and potential of print.
Finally, we want to share insights with the community but we also gain a lot of insight, which allows us to tailor our content offering, and will impact Fespa 2013.
An edited version of this interview can be seen as a video.