Both young and experienced have been celebrated at the All Parliamentary Print Group reception on the terrace of the House of Lords.
The BPIF presented the award for Outstanding Achievement to the Printing Industry to Debbie Mellet who rose from office junior to become managing director of Label-Form in Maidenhead over 50 years in the industry. She had also played a major role as a regional board member of the BPIF and within the BPIF Labels community group. Accepting the award Mellet said she will be retiring at the end of the year.
The youth was represented by Izelda Lala from Bakers Labels who received the Kathy Woodward Award for Learning and the Big Cheque (for £1,000) from Webmart founder Simon Biltcliffe. Biltcliffe said the award was in memory of the former BPIF chief executive who had worked for BPCC among others in HR.
“She was a talent spotter,” Biltcliffe said, explaining that he had been fast tracked through the UK’s largest printing business as a result. “Everyone of us has talented people in our organisations. Spotting them is really difficult when people are working from home.”
And he warned that AI was on the point of changing the industry faster than the arrival of the world wide web had. “The internet took 20 years to have an impact. This will happen in two years with AI. One of our biggest clients found us through an AI chat engine.
“So we want people that are AI savvy,” he said, pointing out that it may be expensive to employ people with these skills but it is justified. “Thanks to having embedded AI we will grow 20-25% with no more people,” he added before presenting the cheque to Lala.
In a post on LinkedIn Lala noted: “After being in the print industry for two years, I’ve realised it comes with many unique complexities, like it’s own technological advancements, balancing sustainability and consistency, and the social reaction to print. There’ll always be another angle to consider, therefore I’ll be using the grant towards a certificate in packaging by Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3), to further my understanding in material development.”
This was the second time she had been recognised, having been placed third in Intergraf’s Young Talent Award for an essay looking at the impact of hyper personalisation and how print can create stronger emotional connections while audiences are showing signs of digital fatigue.
Two highly commended awards were also made. One went to Chloe Wellman and the other to Daniel Mylowsky, an apprentice at Blackmore Press.
