Following on from a successful inaugural event in 2022, this year’s FESPA Sydney Social attracted a crowd of just over 100 attendees from the printing community to the Sydney Rowing Club in Abbotsford.
Held last night against a beautiful backdrop of waterways, the event provided a perfect opportunity for the industry to catch up and network with colleagues while enjoying delicious food and refreshing drinks.
Welcoming the group to the event, FESPA Australia president Nigel Davies also thanked the sponsors before drawing attention to UK-based Fujifilm Ultra products marketing manager Shaun Holdom, whom he thanked for his strong FESPA support and jokingly said, “wins the award for the furtherest travel”.
Davies went on to highlight the FESPA Conference, which co-locates with the ProPrint Awards on 3 November, and is running for the second time.
“Last year’s event went really well and we took on board all your feedback, and this year we aim to make it even better,” he said, thanking Alex McClelland, MD Orafol for his platinum sponsorship last year and again this year, and for also supporting the leadership program.
“Ball & Doggett and Orafol were the first on board to support us last year and that gave us momentum – we couldn’t have done it without them,” he said gratefully.
“We want the conference to be a place where we talk about things that matter to the industry. As business owners, you guys know what matters to you and you are very well connected internationally so if there is something you are passionate about and believe that there are things to be discussed, come to us with suggestions of speakers and topics.”
Troy Cavanagh from Imagebox, who was voted last year’s Future Leader, then took to the floor, welcoming the other future leader graduates in attendance.
“The Future Leader program is a fantastic initiative. The group and the team got a lot out of it. We have been in contact regularly since then and we are starting to build some momentum in the future of the program. We have some good ideas which we are putting into place, and will announce them as the year goes on,” he said, encouraging the group to start thinking about those that they wish to nominate for the program.
“Consider who you might nominate or push them to nominate themselves because it’s a fantastic initiative – they will get a lot out of it, and it’s well worth doing.”
The Fespa Sydney Social was sponsored by Ball & Doggett, Durst, Currie Group, Cactus Imaging, Spicers, Avery Dennison, Coritex and Kissel + Wolf.
More pics of the event will be published in the ProPrint April 2023 issue.
James Merhab (Ball & Doggett)
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