LIA president Greg Grace says “The major factor influencing the decision was the severe impact of the financial crisis. 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” said the LIA’s NSW executive officer, Bob Lamont, “but each model we created told us that the forces stacked against us, which made staging a successful conference highly problematical. 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 LIA will now focus on the staging of the 2008- 2009 National Graduates Awards Presentation, which will be celebrated with a Gala Dinner to be held in Sydney on Friday evening October 16. Lamont says, “We are delighted that our major sponsors Heidelberg and GAMAA are committed to supporting this event.”

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