30^th January 2012

Created to assist visitors to explore FESPA Digital and Fabric 2012 before, during and after the event, the app contains a comprehensive overview of event information including travel and accommodation, venue location, opening dates and times, and news about event sponsors.

Aside from general event news, app users have the advantage of receiving more detailed FESPA Digital and FESPA Fabric information. Each event section features exhaustive information including programme schedules for the Explore Conference and Textile Talk Theatre. Users can also access Wrap Cup Series timetables and keep abreast of live screen printing and garment demonstrations happening at Charlie’s Corner. For visitors wanting to know more details on the educational programmes, the app comprises a full list of speakers accompanied by biographies and images. Plus, the app gives visitors an insight of what’s happening in real-time at the show.

To help visitors make the most of their time at FESPA Digital, the app offers the ability to create a “My Event” diary. By creating a bespoke event programme, the visitor is provided with a personal guide of all the information on exhibition stands, features and theatre sessions they expressed an interest in visiting. “My Event” will send a private notification of all the latest information concerning their agenda and a reminder when their next planned activity is due to begin. Once users have arranged their day, the convenient interactive floor plan will help to navigate the hall. Linked to the map is an exhibitor list which also enables visitors to effortlessly search for company and product information.

The app also features a stream of FESPA’s social media platforms including Twitter feeds, the FESPA Facebook and LinkedIn pages and The Wide Network. Set out using a simple dashboard, the social section is the best way to keep up with on-site trends.

The app can be downloaded across all mainstream platforms including Apple, Android and Blackberry devices. The automatic updating system means that users need only download the programme once to receive the latest information.

FESPA’s Marketing Manager, Lynda Sutton comments: “As an organisation we aim to connect more effectively with the wide format community in the slickest and most engaging way. Visitors really welcomed our mobile app last year in Hamburg and we’re confident that they will appreciate it once again as a valuable resource to enhance their show experience in Barcelona. With rapid adoption of smartphones across Europe, apps are becoming a functional and informative service accessible to almost everyone.”

Visitors can download the app via FESPA.com/digital by opening the link on their hand-held device and clicking on the icon to download.

About FESPA

Founded in 1962, FESPA is a not-for-profit federation of trade associations and an organiser of exhibitions and conferences for the screen and digital printing industries.  FESPA’s dual aim is to promote screen printing and digital imaging and to share knowledge about screen and digital printing with its members across the world, helping them to grow their businesses and learn about the latest developments in their fast growing industries.

FESPA member organisations include 27 separate National Associations in Europe, and 10 Associate Member Associations in Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

FESPA Profit for Purpose 

Our shareholders are the industry. FESPA has invested millions of Euros into the global printing community over the last 7 years, supporting the growth of the market. For more information visit www.fespa.com

Forthcoming FESPA events include:

• FESPA Digital 2012, 21-24 February 2012, Barcelona, Spain
• FESPA Fabric 2012, 21-24 February 2012, Barcelona, Spain
• FESPA Global Summit 2012, 15-16 November, London, UK
• FESPA Mexico 2012, 20-22 September 2012, Mexico City, Mexico
• FESPA 2013, 25-29 June 2013, London, UK
• FESPA Digital 2014, 20-23 May 2014, Munich, Germany

26 January 2012 -

Nominees might have pioneered a new approach or technology, or demonstrated innovation in other ways. They may simply stand out on print skill or service, for a leading stance on sustainability, or have made some other significant contribution to the industry. Based on the online votes, FESPA will narrow down a shortlist of up to ten printing innovators per country who their peers hold up as inspirational role models in the print community.

The final shortlist of nominees will be honoured at FESPA Digital in Barcelona in the form of a 20 metre Hall of Fame ‘gallery of stars’ located in the entrance hallway of Fira de Barcelona Exhibition centre. This is where exhibition visitors will have the opportunity to vote for the outright winner of the Printer of the Year 2012.

Every shortlisted printer will receive VIP status to attend FESPA Digital 2012, and will also benefit from privileged invitations to future FESPA VIP events such as Global Summits. The recipient of this prestigious accolade will be announced at a champagne VIP reception for the Hall of Fame printers on the FESPA stand 315a at 2pm on the last day of FESPA Digital 2012.

The country with the leading number of nominations so far is Germany with 30 printing ‘heroes’, followed by UK (22) and India (21).

To see the list of nominees and vote, visit www.Fespa.com/halloffame.  If the list is missing someone you believe should be included, get voting now. Monday 6^th February is the last day to nominate your printing idol before the shortlist process gets underway.

FESPA Managing Director Neil Felton comments: “The number and calibre of nominations in our first FESPA Hall of Fame is impressive, it will be a very difficult shortlisting process! Our aim is to celebrate people, not particular jobs or campaigns, printing companies, or new technological innovations. It’s rare for the individual print professionals who drive this community to be recognised for their unique and personal contribution. The Hall of Fame will be a celebration of printers who their peers hold up as inspirational role models.”

About FESPA

Founded in 1962, FESPA is a not-for-profit federation of trade associations and an organiser of exhibitions and conferences for the screen and digital printing industries.  FESPA’s dual aim is to promote screen printing and digital imaging and to share knowledge about screen and digital printing with its members across the world, helping them to grow their businesses and learn about the latest developments in their fast growing industries.

FESPA member organisations include 27 separate National Associations in Europe, and 10 Associate Member Associations in Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Forthcoming FESPA events include:

• FESPA Digital 2012, 21-24 February 2012, Barcelona, Spain
• FESPA Fabric 2012, 21-24 February 2012, Barcelona, Spain
• FESPA Mexico 2012, 20-22 September 2012, Mexico City, Mexico
• FESPA Global Summit 2012, 15-16 November, London, UK
• FESPA 2013, 25-29 June 2013, London, UK
• FESPA Digital 2014, 20-23 May 2014, Munich, Germany

FESPA Profit for Purpose 

Our shareholders are the industry. FESPA has invested millions of Euros into the global printing community over the last 7 years, supporting the growth of the market.

For more information visit www.fespa.com

ALEXANDRIA, VA – January 23, 2012 –

The award honors work by associations in a variety of communications and marketing areas and is part of Association TRENDS’ 2012 Salute to Association Excellence Luncheon to be presented Feb. 10.

“We’re thrilled with the success of the ISA International Sign Expo 2011 both in terms of attendance and exhibitors and also with this recognition from our peers,” said Brandon Hensley, ISA’s vice president, trade show and marketing. “Awards like this only enhance the reputation of  ISA’s Sign Expo as the signature event in the sign and visual communications industry.”

The prospectus details the benefits of exhibiting at ISA International Sign Expo. The 2011 event featured an 18 percent increase in exhibitors over 2010.

This marks the second award for the 2011 exhibitor prospectus, and the fourth overall for marketing efforts related to the 2011 ISA International Sign Expo. Late last year, ISA earned awards from the International Association for Exhibitions and Events for overall marketing efforts for the Expo. The American Graphic Design Awards presented ISA with two honors, for its exhibitor prospectus and print advertisement.

International Sign Expo 2012 is scheduled for March 21-24 in Orlando, Fla. Visit www.signexpo.org to learn more.

ALEXANDRIA, VA – January 9, 2012

This year, the competition includes two new categories: Electronic Message Centers, and Banner Signs and Vinyl Graphics. The two new categories join six others, including historic reproduction/restoration, wayfinding, freestanding and building signs. In addition, an overall winner will be named.

To enter, ISA member companies must complete an online entry form and provide photos of the completed signs. The complete list of rules and specifications is available at www. signs.org/enter2012. The deadline for entries is Feb. 3.

“The annual Sign Design Competition reflects the remarkable talent of sign designers,” said Lori Anderson, ISA’s president and CEO. “Our members create unique projects that serve their customers, often overcoming obstacles with regulations and installations to make it happen. This competition is just one way of honoring the outstanding work that is done all year throughout our industry.”

As in the previous two years, all voting will be conducted online, scheduled to begin Feb. 13 on www.signs.org. The winning signs and designs will be on display at ISA’s International Sign Expo 2012, to be held March 21-24 in Orlando, Florida. For more information on the ISA International Sign Expo, visit www.signexpo.org.

About ISA

ALEXANDRIA, VA – January 10, 2012 – 

Fatigue Tests of Welded Connections in Cantilevered Steel Sign Structures is based on tests performed at UCSD’s Charles Lee Powell Structural Systems Laboratory from 2010 to 2011. The research provides guidance in the repair or rebuilding of existing structures as well as information about improving the  safety and durability of new  structures.

“This research has been an important initiative for ISA on behalf of our industry and is the result of many hours of work by the ISA Mechanical and Structural Subcommittee,” said Rich Gottwald, ISA’s executive vice president. “While there have been only a handful of failures out of out of tens of thousands of sign structures, ensuring that our products are safe throughout their life-cycle is important for our industry and our customers. We believe that this report will help engineers, manufacturers, installers and end users understand the importance of regular inspections and continuing education.”

The full report is available at the ISA website (www.signs.org/signstructures).

About ISA

15th December 2011

Over half believe that the market has not fully recovered (52.44%) but the outlook of printers remains optimistic despite the challenging environment, with three quarters of respondents believing that the market will grow in 2012, with an average expected growth of 14.5% across the year for their business.

Reflecting on 2011 end of year sales, 20.4% of respondents said they were better than expected,  a fifth said they were better than 2010, and 40% reported that they have done as expected.

The Economy Survey was commissioned by FESPA and carried out by its research partner InfoTrends on behalf of its global wide format community. As part of FESPA’s Profit for Purpose reinvestment programme, the main objective of the survey is to collect valuable insight into market trends and gauge business outlook for 2012 and beyond. The information was gathered from 225 respondents who are engaged in wide format printing from across the world.

Over half of those who took part in the survey were printers (52.9%); one fifth were resellers and 10.2% manufacturers. Europe dominated the survey’s geographical split with over half of respondents (57.3%) located in the region, followed by North America, Asia, Africa, South America and Middle East respectively.

According to FESPA’s Economy Survey 5, a third (33.3%) of respondents said that the primary reason for investing in a new wide format printer would be to accommodate different media and/or a wider range of applications with output quality and running costs being the other top criteria. A UV-curable inkjet printer was the highest area of investment (50%), followed by latex or another durable aqueous inkjet printer (31.6%).

62.7% of respondents indicated that ‘green’ printing, or printing using more environmentally-friendly practices has seen an increase in demand as a service, with over one fifth planning to invest in an eco-or light solvent printer. Over a third (36.9%) also cited seeing a rise in customer demand in applications requiring white ink printing, 35.6% in versioning/variable data printing and 23.1% in printing QR codes or other interactive elements.

Printers believe that there are some challenges within the area of digital signage, with 80% of respondents believing that digital displays has, is or will impact on wide format digital print applications. Of the 80%, impact on POP graphics was deemed to be greatest (23.3%), followed by billboards, backlit, and vehicle graphics respectively.

FESPA Managing Director Neil Felton comments: “We know that our global wide format community look forward to the findings and emerging trends identified in the FESPA Economy Survey. It is heartening that our 5^th Economic Survey results show that PSPs have optimism in their own entrepreneurialism. It is a very positive sign that over 70% of respondents plan to diversify their business to increase their bottom line. This commercial intelligence will inevitably stand PSPs in good stead over the forthcoming year.”

He continued: “The findings are also encouraging for the FESPA Digital 2012 event that will enable PSPs to ‘Explore the Wider Opportunities’.  As our campaign collateral says, ‘business is a journey’ with challenges and opportunities along the way. No printer needs to feel they are at a standstill; there are proactive business decisions they can consider, for example, can they try to implement new technologies or processes, diversify into different wide format applications, experiment with new substrates and inks, develop new services or business models, increase automation, offer more complete end-to-end solutions, or even move into entirely new market segments.

With 400 exhibitors in a single giant hall, and the charismatic city of Barcelona as the backdrop, a visit to FESPA Digital 2012 is guaranteed to give wide format print service providers all the information and insight they need to plan the next stage of their own journey and build their business.”

The full FESPA/InfoTrends Economy Survey 5 is available as a benefit to members of FESPA affiliated associations, visit www.fespa.com to find out about your national association.

About FESPA

Founded in 1962, FESPA is a not-for-profit federation of trade associations and an organiser of exhibitions and conferences for the screen and digital printing industries.  FESPA’s dual aim is to promote screen printing and digital imaging and to share knowledge about screen and digital printing with its members across the world, helping them to grow their businesses and learn about the latest developments in their fast growing industries.

FESPA member organisations include 27 separate National Associations in Europe, and 10 Associate Member Associations in Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Forthcoming FESPA events include:

• FESPA Digital 2012, 21-24 February 2012,Barcelona,Spain
• FESPA Fabric 2012, 21-24 February 2012,Barcelona,Spain
• FESPA Mexico 2012, 20-22 September 2012, Mexico City, Mexico
• FESPA 2013, 25-29 June 2013,London,UK
• FESPA Digital 2014, 20-23 May 2014,Munich,Germany

13th December 2011

To date, the Planet Friendly Printing Guide has only been available to members of FESPA’s 37 member associations. The latest version of the guide will remain exclusive to FESPA members; however, in recognition that sustainability is a pressing issue for all printers, FESPA will make an abridged version of the guide available to non-member printers around the world.

In addition to the valuable advice and guidance offered in the Planet Friendly Printing Guide, FESPA will be extending the availability of the insights and advice on pursuing sustainable printing which has been a strong feature of all FESPA’s recent content-led events – such as the FESPA Global Summit 2010, the FESPA Planet Friendly Summit 2010 and the FESPA Global Summit 2011. FESPA has explored more than 40 aspects of sustainability in its research over the last five years, and delivered more than 50 presentations in four continents on the topic.

Presentations on sustainability from global experts, certified sustainable printers, suppliers to the PSP community, and its customers such as top-ten global creative agency Ogilvy and brand owners such as Unilever, Nike and others are now available to all without charge on www.fespa.com

FESPA is making these resources available to the global print community to promote understanding of the key drivers for adopting sustainable practices, and the routes to ensure our businesses become more planet-friendly. These resources will be complimented not only by the continued offering of insight and advice on sustainability at FESPA’s events, and an increased offering of advice and consultation on www.fespa.com via webinars and other online resources.

FESPA Digital 2012 will see a comprehensive Planet Friendly Printing programme on offer to PSPs– featuring:

• Presentations from global experts such as Paul Machin;
• Case studies from printers who are enjoying improved business results due to adopting sustainable practices such as Simon Pless of Erler&Pless;
• Workshops on pursuing certification under schemes such as ISO 14001 and EMAS, led by accredited assessors; and
• Consultation in the FESPA Planet Friendly Printing Clinic.

All these resources are available to printer’s free-of-charge at FESPA Digital 2012 in Barcelona from February 21-24, 2012. Look out for the dates of Planet Friendly Printing webinars on FESPA.com soon, as well as the ‘ask the expert’ facility.

Planet Friendly Printing is another facet of FESPA’s reinvestment programme, which has already seen more than three million Euros reinvested in various initiatives to support printers over the last seven years, explains FESPA Head of Events& New Media Duncan MacOwan, who is steering the Planet Friendly Printing programme development.

“The development of fresh initiatives under the Planet Friendly Printing banner recognises the ongoing significance of sustainability to our global print community, and its reprioritisation by PSPs and their customers as we gradually emerge from global recession.”

He continues: “Sustainability is far from being a topic for dark green ‘eco-champions’. Sustainable print capabilities are a decisive factor for many print buyers when selecting a PSP, and as the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda matures, so demand for environmentally responsible print will increase. What’s more, environmental best practice is often economical best practice, particularly when it comes to energy saving and prudent materials and waste management, so there are immediate commercial gains to be made from ‘going green’.”

FESPA’s Managing Director, Neil Felton comments: “Navigating the route to sustainability can be challenging as printers looking to avoid greenwash and empty claims by commercial entities seek impartial advice on how to become more planet friendly in their business activities.

“The issue of sustainability in printing has long been recognised by FESPA as pressing, as evinced by our efforts to raise awareness of the issue, encourage printers to adopt more planet friendly printing practices, and offer practical advice and expert insight to printers – wherever they are on the journey to sustainability. We believe that to be truly planet-friendly it is important to address sustainability globally. FESPA’s global footprint within and beyond our 37 member associations, coupled with the profit-for-purpose basis on which FESPA is organised, means we are well placed to offer continuous independent, unbiased support to the worldwide print community as we collectively move towards a more sustainable future, and we are excited to be further extending the reach of our activities in this area.”

About FESPA

Founded in 1962, FESPA is a not-for-profit federation of trade associations and an organiser of exhibitions and conferences for the screen and digital printing industries.  FESPA’s dual aim is to promote screen printing and digital imaging and to share knowledge about screen and digital printing with its members across the world, helping them to grow their businesses and learn about the latest developments in their fast growing industries.

FESPA member organisations include 27 separate National Associations in Europe, and 10 Associate Member Associations in Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Forthcoming FESPA events include:

• FESPA Digital 2012, 21-24 February 2012, Barcelona, Spain
• FESPA Fabric 2012, 21-24 February 2012, Barcelona, Spain
• FESPA Mexico 2012, 20-22 September 2012, Mexico City, Mexico
• FESPA 2013, 25-29 June 2013, London, UK
• FESPA Digital 2014, 20-23 May 2014, Munich, Germany

ALEXANDRIA, VA –November 14, 2011

Rumbaugh has developed a variety of educational offerings, including a robust online training website and several on-site events.

“The days when someone will receive all of their education through a conference or training course are long gone,” Rumbaugh said. “To provide the best education, we must get into our members’ workflow and make sure they have the performance support that they need. I intend to spend a significant amount of time understanding what the industry needs and exploring the best way for us to provide that whether that is online, mobile, conferences or webinars.”

Prior to joining NGA, Rumbaugh was a senior research analyst with the Corporate Executive Board, where he developed and managed an online survey tool to measure employee engagement levels and devise action plans.

“Education is vital to helping our members navigate the changing regulations and understand the latest technologies,” said Rich Gottwald, ISA executive vice president. “We are thrilled to have someone with Matthew’s experience helping to expand the educational opportunities that ISA provides to our members and the industry. ”

About ISA

ALEXANDRIA, VA – October 31, 2011

Immediately following each three-day mobile crane operator safety certification training, participants undergo both written and practical certification testing conducted by the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO).  To comply with OSHA’s Cranes and Derricks in Construction Rule 29 CFR Part 1926, all mobile crane operators must be certified by Nov. 10, 2014. Some states have enacted rules that require certification to be completed before 2014.

“Ensuring that every mobile crane operator is trained and certified by 2014 is a monumental task for a variety of industries,” said Joel Oliva, Program Manager/Regulatory Affairs Coordinator for the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO). “To have the International Sign Association take a key leadership role within the on-premise sign industry has been tremendous. They have been a valued partner to NCCCO in ensuring that mobile crane operators receive the best training to prepare for the certification testing and ultimately to create a safer workplace.”

ISA has hosted training in 18 sites throughout the country in 2011.

“We’re pleased with the number of sign industry professionals who have committed to this training in 2011,” said Lori Anderson, ISA president and CEO. “It provides a competitive advantage and helps ensure safety on the job. We remain committed to helping the sign industry prepare for this OSHA mandate in the most effective and efficient way possible. ”

ISA will continue to offer this program to help companies comply with the regulation. To learn more and to see upcoming courses as they are scheduled, visit www.signs.org/cranetraining.