The Power of Print seminar returns to Stationers’ Hall for its 13th iteration on 7 November with a line up of speakers that covers the familiar and the novel.
The familiar includes BPIF CEO Charles Jarrold taking the temperature of the industry; Jonathan Tame providing an update on activity from Two Sides, including insights from its latest trends report; Canon’s Matthew Faulkner outlining the ‘emotional wheel’ that drives the power of print; and Whistl managing director Mark Davies, presenting a “print solution to a digital problem”.
That proposition runs through the event. It brings together ad and marketing agencies, brands, retailers and printers for a shared appreciation of print in the UK and how ink on paper can repel the challenge from digital.
This is expressed by author Mark Shayler who will demonstrate how the quietness of print, its physicality, its ability to engage through touch, smell, sound and vision gives print a unique power that consumers are seeking as respite from an increasingly digital world. This explains the popularity of vinyl records, photographs and even manual typewriters he argues.
Another author, Henry Coutinho Mason, delves into the impact of artificial intelligence and what it can, and importantly, what it cannot do.
Sustainability is not surprisingly to the fore. Maja Kjellberg, packaging development leader for Ikea, talks about how the furniture retailer tackles the need to produce packaging that can be reused and recycled; Anna Papagrigoraki, sustainability at Cepi, looks at the importance of upcoming legislation, and Simon Hoppner, founder of Net Zero Now, goes into why net zero is important for print businesses and why it means business sense to start on the journey now.
The seminar costs £199 to attend though there are discounts for BPIF members and members of Two Sides.
That organisation’s latest trend tracker survey report offers encouragement to advocates for the use of print. The latest findings from this show that consumers are aware that messaging encouraging the take up of digital invoices is about saving money than it is about concern for the environment. Consequently 76% (up from 74% two years ago) agree they should have the right to choose how large companies communicate with them.
There is an increasing concern about the excess use of digital channels: the security of personal information, the health impacts of over use of digital devices and that people are spending too much time online. In a conclusion that suits the message of the Print Power seminar. Two Sides Europe managing director Jonathan Tame, says: “Print and digital are often compared in a bid to decide which is best, but both channels are important and complement each other.”
