Pamex roadshow reaches Ahmedabad

Next stop Pune on 23 December 2022

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Pamex
The event, structured around a half-day conference and full-day table-top exhibition was organized by the All India Federation of Master Printers and Ahmedabad Printing Press Association

The second stop of the six-city promotional tour of Pamex 2023 was Ahmedabad in Gujarat. The event held on 9 December 2022 took the message of ‘Convergence in print’ further to the grassroots of the printing fraternity. 

The event, structured around a half-day conference and full-day table-top exhibition, was organized by the All India Federation of Master Printers and Ahmedabad Printing Press Association, in association with Print-Packaging.com. The local bodies of the Vadodara Master Printer’s Association, Maninagar Printing Press Owners Association, Printers Association Amdavad, and Mehsana Printers Association extended their support to the show.

Pamex
The event was inaugurated by Raveendra Joshi, president, All India Federation of Master Printers and other senior members of AIFMP

The event was inaugurated by Raveendra Joshi, president, All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP); Anant Vishwanath Joshi, vice-president- West, AIFMP; Tushar Dhote, co-chairman, Pamex; Fallith Pandya, president, Ahmedabad Printing Press Association; Jignesh Shah, president, Vadodara Master Printers Association; Mukesh Padsala, president, Printers Association Ahmedabad; Hiren Parikh, president, Maninagar Printing Press Owners Association; Atul Pandit, president, Mehsana Printers Association and Anil Arora, President, Print-Packaging.com.

“Pamex, the flagship event of AIFMP, is organizing promotional road shows in six cities of India to reach the printers, converters, suppliers, and brand owners from these areas and invite them to Pamex 2023, which is being held from 27-30 March 2023 at BEC, Mumbai. The NAEP award ceremony, co-located with Pamex 2023 is another industry attraction,” said Raveendra Joshi, President, AIFMP – the organizers of Pamex. He shared details of the proposed AIFMP Bhavan, the Research & Training Centre for Graphic Communications, which is being planned at Manesar, Gurgaon, Haryana. 

The conference was attended by more than 100 delegates, who with other visitors, explored the table-top exhibition, creating a complete networking environment. The participating companies included Vinsak India, Omet India, Manroland Goss, Photokina Chemicals, Zhongke India, S Kumar Multi Products, Simplify, Gebr. Becker India Vacuum Pumps, LineOMatic Graphic Industries, Unison Machinery, Gujarat Printers Directory, and Print & Publishing. 

The conference started with a panel discussion on ‘Convergence in Print- The Way Forward’, led and moderated by Ranesh Bajaj, Vinsak India. The panelists who spoke about the application and need for convergence included Manish Desai, Mudrika Labels, Hyuma Mahadevia, Yamir Packaging, Mudresh Purohit, Surya Offset and Sanat Gandhi, and Pelican Rotoflex. 

Next was a presentation by Pawandeep Sahni of OMET India titled, ‘The Convergence Mindset- How to encash on the biggest opportunity in print.’ Sahni took the example of Apple and the launch of the first iPhone, which saw the coming together of a wide-screen iPod with touch controls; a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communication device in a single instrument to highlight how a convergence mindset can change a company’s fortune. 

Ranesh Bajaj, Vinsak India, then took over the dais to talk about ‘Connected Packaging’. He introduced the word ‘phygital’ – the concept of using technology to bridge the digital world with the physical world with the purpose of providing a unique interactive experience for the user. “Digitizing the packaging of brands and products is important for authenticity, visibility, and interactivity- resulting in brand protection, consumer interaction, and efficiency,” he said. He spoke about the importance of track and trace, which prevents customers from purchasing counterfeit items and makes it extremely difficult for counterfeiters to mimic packaging.

In his concluding remarks Tushar Dhote, co-chairman, Pamex,  asked the attendees to explore possibilities of applying convergence in their work areas and to share case studies. 

The half-day conference was followed by a networking lunch and a visit to the tabletop exhibition. 

The next stop of the Pamex promotional journey will be Pune where a conference and a table-top exhibition will be held on 23 December 2022 at Hotel President. The event will be organized by AIFMP and The Poona Press Owners Association Ltd., in association with Print-Packaaging.com and supported by Solapur Mudrak Sangh, Kolhapur Zilla Mudrak Sangh, Pune District Master Printers Association and Printers Association, Ichalkaranji.

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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