Pamex roadshow converges with printers day in Bengaluru

Pamex 2023 from 27-30 March 2023 in Mumbai

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PAMEX
Participants at the Pamex roadshow in Bengaluru on 24 February 2023.

There was a festive atmosphere at the FKCCI Auditorium in Bengaluru for the penultimate PAMEX roadshow on 24 February that also happened to be the Printers’ Day. Nearly 200 delegates who had traveled for hours by train or chartered buses from Davangere, Hassan, Malanad, Tumkur, Udupi and Vijaypur Districts were greeted by the KSPA team over breakfast. The delegates then went for the tabletop exhibition before heading to the auditorium for the inaugural session where they were joined by local delegates from Bengaluru, making it among the most well attended event in the series of Roadshows to promote Pamex 2023.

The inaugural ceremony started with the lighting of the lamp by Raveendra Joshi, president, All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP); R Janardhana, past president, AIFMP; B V Gopal Reddy, president, FKCCI; K Kumarasamy, VP-South, AIFMP; Ashok Kumar, president, KSPA; Mahesh Kumar, state-level district co-ordination committee, Karnataka State Printers Association; Prakash G Kodavooru, president, UDPOA, Hemantha Kumar, president, HDPA; A M Prakash, President, DDPA; Tushar Dhote, co-Chairman, Pamex, AIFMP and Anil Arora, president, Print-Packaging.Com. 

The dignitaries were welcomed with traditional shawls and garlands. “I am thankful to the delegates who have extended their support towards the event and have showered so much love on me. I will always remember this day with fond memories. AIFMP looks forward to welcoming the visitors from all over Karnataka to Pamex2023 in Mumbai,” said Joshi.

The event, organized by the All India Federation of Master Printers and the Karnataka State Printers Association (KSPA), in association with Print-Packaging.com, was supported by the Hassan District Printers Association (HDPA), Udupi District Press Owners Association (UDPOA) and Davangere District Printers Association (DDPA).

The panel siscussion at the conference was moderated by Amitabh Luthra, Printers Supply, who started the discussion giving a brief on how convergence is clearly visible in all stages of printing. “Whether it is the software used in pre-press, printing machines which have inline finishing options, the possibility of printing on various substrates, convergence in label printing processes and now even in cartons,” he said. 

The panelists at the session, Gopi Ballarwad, iTekPackz; Denver Annunciation, Janus International; Suresh Srinivasan, Kamsri Printing & Packaging and C N Ashok, Autoprint Machinery, shared their success stories around – ‘Convergence in Print- The Way Forward.’

Pawandeep Sahni from OMET India, took over the dais for his presentation on ‘The Convergence Mindset- How to encash on the biggest opportunity in print’. “It is very important to evaluate your results, compared to the efforts you put in. Convergence is not only about adopting the change, but also about understanding how to make the change work for you,” he said. 

Ashutosh Tripathi, National Centre for Flexible Electronics- IIT Kanpur, joined the event to talk about ‘Printed Electronics- Opportunities for Print and Packaging Industries’. According to him, convergence can be of use when we innovate and collaborate, focus on R&D & long-term objectives, understand each-other better and develop the indigenous ecosystem.

The event concluded with a vote of thanks by R Janardhana, past president, AIFMP. He thanked AIFMP for organizing the event in Bengaluru and appreciated the participants. 

The conference was followed by a networking lunch that created an opportunity for the attendees to take a walk through the table of exhibition, being held concurrently at the same venue. The exhibition saw exhibitors such as Boxtech, Hariram Engineering, Indus Analytics, IIT Kanpur, OMET India, Print & Publishing, Suba Solutions Private Limited and others, who presented their companies before the visitors of the exhibition with their innovations and applications on convergence. 

The last destination for Pamex 2023 Roadshow was Haridwar.  Pamex 2023 is scheduled to be held from 27-30 March 2023 at Bombay Exhibition Center, Mumbai.

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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