Above: Peter Harper at the 2024 ProPrint Awards
Outgoing CEO of Visual Connections Peter Harper was honoured with this year’s Industry Achievement Award at the 2024 ProPrint Awards.
Held on Friday 25 October 2024 at the Shangri-La Sydney, the ProPrint Awards celebrated and honoured excellence in the Australian printing industry. This year’s event reported record numbers, with more than 365 guests in attendance.
Now in its third year, the Industry Achievement Award honours an industry legend with more than 25 years of experience. The recipient of the Industry Achievement Award will have made a significant contribution to the industry beyond their own business. The winner is judged by the 2023 Printer 50 Top 10 and platinum sponsor, Durst Oceania.
Harper, who founded the original sign industry supplier association 30 years ago and has been at the helm of Visual Connections for the past 18 years, announced his retirement in July, bringing to a close a career of more than 50 years in the print, sign, and graphics sector.
“As a company we firmly believe that suppliers need to give back to the industry,” said Philip Trumble, managing director of Pozitive Sign and Graphics, sponsor of the Industry Achievement Award.
“It’s our responsibility to support the industry and the people that support us, which is why events like tonight and this award – that recognises the hard work and dedication that someone has been given to our industry – is so important.”
Peter Harper said he was honoured to receive the Industry Achievement Award following the calibre of past winners.
“I’ve been humbled by the hundreds of best wishes and kind words that I have received over the last few months since I announced my retirement in July,” Harper said.
“I seriously don’t believe that I should be mentioned in the same category as previous winners like Peter Clark and the great Geoff Selig.
“I’ve been in this industry for some 50 years now and I have truly enjoyed every one of those years. Like all of us, we have our ups and downs in our career, but I don’t think I would have changed anything, including the last 18 years that I have been part of the supplier associations first with VISA and then with Visual Connections,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to retirement, but I know I will miss of all this. I would like to thank the Visual Connections board past and present. These people work very hard behind the scenes and give up their valuable time to give back into the industry.
“I would also like to thank my team mates at Visual Connections. I have worked with some great people over the years but none better than the ones I work with today.
“Finally, I would like to thank my family. They are my rock and I’m certainly looking forward to spending a lot more time with my wife Jenny, my four children, and my six grandchildren.
“Thank you very much for this award. I’m honoured, and thanks for the memories.”
Read more about the 2024 ProPrint Awards in the upcoming December issue of ProPrint magazine.
The 2024 ProPrint Awards would not be possible without the ongoing support of the event’s sponsors:
Platinum sponsor
Durst Oceania
Gold sponsors
Ball & Doggett
FUJIFILM Australia
HP
IVE Group
Omnigraphics
Pozitive Sign & Graphic Supplies
Silver sponsors
ABC Copiers
Böttcher Systems
Cactus Imaging
EFI
Graph-Pak
Konica Minolta
Kurz Australia
Lamont Print + Signs
Lamson Paragon
Mimaki Australia
PAKKO
Ricoh Australia
Spicers Australia
Xeikon
Auditing partner
PKF
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