Industry identity and guest speaker at the conference Phillip Lawrence detailed the great dilemma facing the planet as numerous forces build to crisis point. These include population growth, tipped to reach 9.1 billion by 2050 from its present 6.8 billion, the environment, economic imperatives – especially of the developing world – and tied to that, employment of the world’s masses.

“Whatever governments do will be wrong,” he said. “A balance between the economy, employment and the environment is critical.”

The global population boom started in about 1750, he said, when the East’s penchant for cleanliness reached Europe and had an immediate impact on life expectancy and mortality rates.

Lawrence also pointed out that, contrary to popular opinion, the printing industry had made enormous strides to reduce its environmental footprint. The industry was 97 per cent less damaging to the environment in 2007 than it was in 1990, he said. No other industry has achieved anywhere near that level of environmental performance.

Keynote speaker for the conference was polar explorer Eric Philips, who enthralled the audience for nearly an hour with tales of his exploits at both the North and South Poles, Greenland, and the Alps of Argentina. His presentation backed up Lawrence’s dire predictions for the world’s environment with evidence of global warming in the polar regions.

At the NIPPA Print Awards gala dinner held last night, the University of Southern Queensland was the big winner in the digital and offset categories. NIPPA financial co-ordinator Justine Wilson was presented with the award for Outstanding Contribution to NIPPA, and the Creative Design Award was presented to Karen Birch of Unitech New Zealand. John Kirk was awarded the NIPPA Scholarship Award, to the value of $2,500, which he said would help him to complete his MBA.

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