The first International Print Day is drawing to a close with printers around the world celebrating the industry despite declining revenue and competition from other mediums.

The campaign, which is ironically 100 per cent social media based, aimed to promote open global knowledge sharing and networking among print workers, by encouraging them to share print-related content on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtags #IPD14 and #PrintChat.

IPD’s Facebook page claims 1271 participants shared 8683 #IPD14 tweets, and posted content that reached more than 23 million Facebook walls over the 24 hour event, while #PrintChat appeared 1266 times on almost six million walls.

Posted content included samples of work from printers around the world; examples of print’s effectiveness; tips and ideas on printing, selling and marketing techniques; pro-print messages and slogans; print-related humour; and a whole lot of self-promotion.

Ikea’s popular ‘book-book’ parody calendar ad was also doing the rounds and the IPD Facebook page includes 19 interviews and video messages from printers in various parts of the globe.

Despite the thousands of posts, Australian printers were largely unaware of the event, and those who were had lukewarm responses.

A ProPrint poll found 64 per cent of respondents had never head of IPD and those who had were evenly divided between feeling it was a great idea or a waste of time.

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