Held last week at Perth’s Central TAFE School of Graphic Arts, the event was presented by Océ Australia’s Andy McCourt (pictured, left), an industry veteran of 25 years.
“The WA branch of the PIAA wanted to bring relevant knowledge to the industry and students here,” said PIAA state president John Stangeland (pictured, centre).
“Printing in Australia employs well over 100,000 Australians and is a ten-billion dollar industry. However, digital technologies and societal and business demands are changing the face of printing faster than many organisations can keep pace with.”
Stangeland claimed that rather than bemoaning the state of the economy and the growth of electronic media, ‘Pinnacles of Printing’ was more focused on which companies are “winning by implementing digital strategies”.
“This is of particular importance to students of graphic arts, who will constantly need to learn new skills to become print media ‘all-rounders’,” Stangeland said.
Among the “pinnacles’ covered were the integration of the web into print businesses, creating a link between print buyers and producers, the use of websites in direct marketing, and the rapid growth in all forms of direct digital output.
With digital production expected to grow 105% between 2007 and 2012 against a 5.7% decline in conventional print methods, McCourt hailed the local industry for moving with the times.
“As is often the case, WA is well ahead of the trends and I was delighted to visit a few local businesses after the show, who are without doubt ‘future-proofing’ themselves with the adoption of digital print and internet marketing methods,” McCourt said.
The event also covered the environmental challenges now facing the industry, with particular attention paid to how businesses can utilise digital technology to reduce their paper wastage and carbon footprint through the application of targeted short-run production.
“Printing has been with humanity for around 600 years and is interwoven in the fabric of society,” said Stangeland.
“It is changing for sure but will always be with us for information, news, entertainment, commerce, packaging, decoration and leisure.”
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