In what would have been the 20th showing for the biennial event, LIA federal president Greg Grace cited the global financial crisis as the main factor behind their decision.

“The major factor influencing the decision was the severe impact of that crisis, which has resulted in a downturn of activity in the local printing industry,” said Grace. “With the prospect of the situation deteriorating further in the coming months, we had to make the hard choice and defer.”

“Before taking this decision, we looked at every possible option to make it happen but each model we created told us that the forces stacked against us made staging a successful conference highly problematical,” said the LIA’s NSW executive officer, Bob Lamont. “In the end we came to the conclusion that deferring and re evaluating at a time when there would be a clearer picture of the chances of staging a successful future conference was clearly the only way to go.”

The Association says it will now be focusing primarily on the 2008- 2009 National Graduates Awards Presentation, which will be held as a gala dinner in Sydney on October 16.

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