More than 150 delegates attended the bi-annual event at Taupo’s Wairakei Resort on 11-13 October.
Speaker included Dale Wallis from the UK printing industry’s peak body, the British Printing Industries Federation, Gus Balbontin from Lonely Planet and ProPrint columnist Philip Lawrence.
PrintNZ chief executive Joan Grace (pictured) told ProPrint the message of turning threat into opportunity was a recurring one.
“Talking about a multi-media environment, you can start looking at that as an opportunity rather than a threat. How do I get into this world? How can this help the world I’m in now?
“There are some challenges as well. We had some speakers saying ‘here’s the graph that shows what is happening to newspaper and magazine readership – so what are you going to do about it?’,” she said.
“We had a speaker [Jason Clarke of Minds at Work] who talked about innovative thinking. For me, Jason’s message was that innovation and creativity should come from within your own team. Are you actually setting up an environment where you are allowing those ideas to come through, flourish and be considered as part of the mix?”
Ms Grace said her highlights of the conference revolved around standing back and observing the interaction of delegates stimulated by the high calibre of speakers.
“Whether they were competitors from a supplier or print company perspective, seeing people talk together about an idea that has been put in front of them and sharing each other’s knowledge to actually take that idea onto the next level.
“It was also good to see some young people there. There were four people who were on scholarships from Trust 4 Skills. For them to be able to mix with other people from the industry and to share where they are in their own careers was really good.”
Ms Grace said the number of attendees was “about expected”, although she added that PrintNZ would always like to see a greater number of the industry have the opportunity to gain the various benefits provided by the event.
The event started with a recreational first day in which delegates could partake in either a five-hour fishing experience on Lake Taupo or compete in a golf tournament on the resort’s international course. This was followed by the conference schedule proper, where 18 speakers presented over two days.
Ms Grace said the aim of the presentations, which covered various topics under the four generic themes of lean-and-green, sales-and-marketing, technical and business, was to challenge participants.
“Not necessarily tell them things they want to hear – maybe what they need to hear.”
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