FESPA UK Association has announced a one-day event for wide-format practitioners to help them keep in step with current and future trends. The conference, entitled "Imaging: The Future is Now" and taking place on Tuesday, 20th November 2012, brings together top industry specialists who will provide analysis, inspiration and business development advice based on their expertise in a range of relevant fields.
The conference will take place at St Bride's Institute on Fleet Street in London, a venue steeped in the history of print. Led by Peter Kiddell, director of the FESPA UK Association and managing director of print consultancy PDS International, it will traverse a range of subjects pertinent to the modern display production business, including screen-printing, ink technology and developments in digital print, as well as digital signage and online marketing.
"Building on its professional support for the wide-format community, the FESPA UK Association believes this forward-thinking industry event will be a real benefit for display and industrial printers of all disciplines," comments Kiddell. "We are at a crucial moment where wide-format houses need to be on top of the potential of new techniques, and the FESPA UK Association is proud to provide them with that opportunity."
Kiddell's own presentation will reveal how printers can fully exploit the ink-friendly characteristics of screen-printing, and investigate how the process can be profitably blended with other analogue and digital technologies to achieve remarkable results. Rana Raychoudhury, world-wide principal technical consultant for HP's large-format production technologies, will develop this theme by presenting on the leading development trends in digital wide-format machinery.
Printed electronics represent a diverse, largely unexplored area of production for many wide-format businesses, but their creation is within the reach of print service providers. Dr Kate Stone of Novalia will share her expertise in the creation of such products from the fusion of creative design, specialist technology and more traditional print methods, enabling any printed item to become interactive. Continuing with this theme, the effect of new technology on ink manufacturing and the potential for innovative new ink formulations will be covered in a separate presentation.
Digital signage has been seen both as a threat and an opportunity by the wide-format print community; Bryan Crotaz, managing director of Silver Curve, is a globally respected digital media integrator who will explain the synergy between print and digital display, and the opportunities that lie in the cross-over between them. The online opportunity for printers seeking to expand their own marketing, and understand the power of social media, will be addressed by James Matthews-Paul, digital publisher and industry commentator, in a talk showing how social and online technology has a surprising sales, marketing and business intelligence that printers can use to boost profits.
"Each of our presenters will provide practical guidance based around the latest technology developments, and a clear insight of how the industry is going to develop in forthcoming years," concludes Kiddell. "The FESPA UK Association conference will change the way wide-format and specialist printers think about their businesses and the new opportunities that are available to them."