The Bombay Master Printers’ Association (BMPA) organized another successful edition of its annual knowledge seminar, Print Summit, on 23 January at Tata Theatre, NCPA. The Print Summit 2020 saw an impressive line-up of speakers who came from diverse backgrounds. The BMPA has been organizing Print Summit since 2005 to celebrate the occasion of Printers’ Day annually. Over the years, the organizers have consciously steered Print Summit away from being print centric to a more holistic event with an eclectic choice of entertainment too.
The event, which saw close to a thousand delegates in attendance, was supported by ITC, Koenig & Bauer, Ample Graphics, Huber Group, Siegwerk, Srinivas Papers, Toyo Inks, Vinsak, Arushi Agencies, Autoprint, ICP Industrial, Light Punch Maker, Nippon Color, Pratham Technologies, Robus India and Technova.
Print Summit 2020 commenced with a talk by ad guru Josy Paul, the chief executive officer of BBDO. He talked about how print and print advertisements can kick off huge engagements among the general public. Paul gave various examples of how print advertisement campaigns have had a major impact on public.
“Print acts as a trigger and has the power to move people. A campaign cannot start without that trigger,” Paul said.
D Shivakumar, group executive president at Aditya Birla Group, talked about how MSMEs can achieve success by working in the ecosystem of large companies. The talk was very important for the audience, which was mostly made up of owners and management of print and packaging companies, who fall in the category of MSME.
K Shankar, chief executive officer, Feedback Business Consulting Services, talked about five ‘fractals’ of a ‘lasting organization’. According to Shankar, the five ‘fractals’ are strategy, structure, process, people and technology.
Modern technology is disrupting legacy businesses across sectors, including print. Vivek Krishnani, managing director at Sony Pictures Entertainment India spoke on this very topic of staying relevant with disruptive innovation. Drawing a parallel between television and film industry and print industry, he said the two may have different business models but technological innovation is having an impact on both.
“Change is inevitable,” Krishnani said. Citing the examples of Kodak, Yahoo! and Nokia, he said that if companies do not change with time, they will become irrelevant.
Gaur Gopal Das, a former HP engineer turned Indian lifestyle coach and motivational speaker, talked about how to address professional challenges. He said that there are things which are variable and those that are constant. According to Das, focus should be on tackling variables which are in one’s control and not constants. He said that individuals should strive to compete with oneself.
Print Summit 2020 also saw an interesting panel discussion among Akshay Kanoria of TCPL Packaging, Pragnyat Lalwani of Seshasai Business Forms, Manish Sharma of Printo and Canvera, and Naresh Kumar Dasari of Macro Media Digital Imaging on how to run multi-location businesses. The session was moderated by Iqbal Kherodawala of Printline Reproductions.
Sascha Fischer, head of product management at Koenig & Bauer Sheetfed, informed the audience about his company’s plan for drupa 2020. He said that Koenig & Bauer is focusing on improving productivity by looking to reduce make-ready time and offering faster machines. He also said that Koenig & Bauer will organize a pre-drupa event in Radebeul on 21 April.
The event closed with a presentation by Vivek Bhargava, chief executive officer, DAN Performance Group, on digital as a multiplier to the print industry. He said that the new generation is not getting attracted to the print industry as a career option, which is a big challenge.
Bhargava also talked about the disruptions and said that 3D printing industry is poised to grow manifold in coming years.
