Australia’s leading supplier groups the Graphic Arts Merchants Association of Australia (GAMAA) and the Visual Industries Suppliers Association (VISA) will merge to become Visual Connections on July 1. GAMAA represents the commercial print equipment suppliers with VISA comprising the display graphics equipment suppliers. Between them the two associations have around a 100 members, with some in both.
Karen Goldsmith, chief executive of GAMAA
Speaking with Australian Printer, Karen Goldsmith, chief executive of GAMAA, says the idea of the merger has been floating for some time and became a mandate for the members at the association’s biannual retreat. Goldsmith says, “We had our biannual retreat in November last year, that is where the decision to merge the two associations was made, and we began to work on it from there. “The merger of the two associations made sense as they have been co-locating exhibitions since 2011, and together with 100 members they will have a stronger voice.” She says the Visual Connections executive team will include Mitchell Mulligan from Bottcher, Russell Cavenagh from DES, Ian Martin from WRH Global, Luke Wooldridge from Kodak, Mark Tailby from Graphic Art Mart, John Wall from Roland DG, Marcus Adler from Adler Digital, and Troy Macintosh from Sign Sheet Distributors. Peter Harper, general manager of VISA, says: “It is good news for everyone and for most it will be business as usual. This might be something new for some people but it has been talked about for years. “A good portion of members belong to both associations and this merger means there will be one revenue source and the savings will be used for industry trade shows, marketing and other joint ventures.”
Peter Harper, general manager of VISA
He says the reason why the merger has taken ‘so long’ is because of the people involved and PrintEx. “Anything that is controlled by a group of people takes a long time. But to be honest, I don’t know why it hasn’t happened yet,” Harper says. “We were going to make the announcement earlier in the year but it was better to wait for PrintEx to be over as it may have overshadowed the event.” GAMAA owns half of the biannual industry trade shows, PacPrint and PrintEx, that swap between Melbourne and Sydney, the other half belongs to Printing Industries. Visual Impact show belongs to VISA, which runs the exhibition twice a year between Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne. According to GAMAA the merger will take 12 months after which time the two associations will consolidate and move under one roof. The move comes as part of a broader trend for associations to merge in line with a changing industry. Some would like to see just one association representing all interests in the printing industry.
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