Theme: “Current Challenges and Opportunities in the Printing and Packaging Industry”
Three speakers, one each from Denmark, Singapore and Sri Lanka ensured that the printers gathered at the one day 4th Edition of International Conference held in Hyderabad, Telangana on 18th November returned home with groundswell of implementable knowledge and tips while deliberating the theme on “Current Challenges and Opportunities in the Printing and Packaging Industry”. Joining soon after the presentations from international speakers, Mr. Kulakkada Pradeep of Future Schoolz from Kerala enthralled the gathering with essential inputs on what printers needed to practice without any additional financial burden to their presses. The event culminated with an equally interesting Panel Discussion with women entrepreneurs.
The conference was organised by the TELANGANA OFFSET PRINTERS ASSOCIATION (TOPA) with the Support of Govt. Of India, International Co-operation Section Ministry of MSME, New Delhi. with the event duly sponsored by the well known organisation Technova.
Speaking on the occasion in his welcome address, Sri C.Ravinder Reddy, President of the TOPA listed out the achievements and the steady progress made by the Association since its inception after the bifurcation of the state. Mr. Ravinder Reddy announced that TOPA is creating history with the ongoing construction and has recently completed the Ground floor with the support of Donors at the New Model Green Industrial Park. building which will be housing the Centre for Excellence in Printing and Packaging planning to fulfill the training needs of the printing and packaging industry to ensure continuous supply of freshly trained, semi-skilled and skilled employees. He thanked the leading printers and others for their contribution in making TOPA realise the completion of Centre for Excellence.
He further appealed to the printers in general and from Telangana in particular to donate liberally to enable fulfilment of its objectives in enhancing the skills of print workers on a large scale with focus on standardising the print processes on a continuous basis.
The first speaker Morten Reitoft, an accomplished speaker having delivered many presentations in Brazil, Sweden, Denmark and Germany besides many other countries, traced the comparison with the print vs digital world and in doing so he was quite audience sensitive with being bilingual in his slides showing English as well as Telugu and this approach endeared the gathering who were Telugu speaking in large numbers though there was a wide cross section from other places also.
His lecture was received in tune with his philosophy of ‘be educated, be surprised and be positive’.
Ms. Josephine Low, a very experienced woman entrepreneur with over three decades association with the printing industry, enlightened the printers on how to be innovative and how to face the onslaught of the digital world. Dealing with high quality jobs for MNCs and other high profile customers across the world, she explained as a keynote speaker, how Singapore is keeping abreast with the challenges and opportunities being faced by the printing and packaging firms.
She strongly believes in drawing a road map for any project. She described how she came up with a five-year road map for the printing and packaging industry in Singapore in coordination with the printers’ association there.
Speaker from Sri Lanka Sri Janaka Rathanakumara proved that he is a 360° professional being an expert in diversified areas like Sustainable energy, Finance and Mechanical engineering. In his lengthy presentation with over 100 slides, he kept up the tempo and motivated the printers to adopt such practices which need no infrastructure but rather determined mindset on the part of the management as well as the workforce. He has driven home the point that in every segment of manufacturing process, there is every possibility of saving be it energy, materials, water, air, chemicals.
He said his organisation did not spare even the water that comes out of air conditioning units and quantified them in thousands of litres thus saved. The printers felt that this lecture of Janaka Rathanakumara has triggered them to definitely try out his tips and make profits, or in other words adopt the principle of reduce, reuse and recycle all such things which are within our reach. His suggestion to look into ourselves as printers is more crucial as what we save is what we earn which in turn is the best way to beat cut throat competition.
All the three speakers took questions and answered patiently. The second part of the session was equally interesting and exciting with Kulakkada Pradeep delivering his lecture punctuated with anecdotes and live examples of how to go about implementing standardisation and other parameters to ensure high quality, cost effectively. With 30 years of experience in Pre Press, Printing and Management areas, he was at ease and asked a good number of questions to the audience besides clarifying many doubts.
TOPA took extra care in coinciding Women Entrepreneurs Day (19 th Nov. the following day) with a Panel Discussion with women entrepreneurs from the printing and packaging industry both from within and outside the country. Ms. Akhila B. And Ms. Swathi K., entrepreneurs from Hyderabad and Lynette Ong from Singapore were part of the discussion moderated by Sri Jose Thomas.
Sri Jose Thomas is a Principal Consultant associated with Future Schoolz. The women entrepreneurs were in their comfort zone, thanks to moderation done by Jose Thomas. His questions were well received and so were the replies from the women entrepreneurs.
Ms. Lynette Ong narrated the gender experience in Singapore printing industry and in her capacity as Director of Corporate Strategies at KPP Packaging Pte Ltd, she traced her own growth and success in her career.
In her response to several questions posed by the moderator, Ms. Akhila B. explained how as second generation family member and with her mother’s moral and psychological support, she completed her Graduation from the world’s prestigious Rochester Institute of Technology, USA and later joined in running the family owned Caxton Press in Hyderabad. She did agree that as a woman, she had to balance family and work and was full of praise for the family support which is paramount for any woman to come up in life, career wise.
Ms. Swati K., Director of Hyderabad Securities and Offset Printers Pvt. Ltd, a Graduate in Engineering in Computer Science stressed the need for human relations and importance of how to be in touch with employees and their families to understand their emotional quotient and also to empathise with what they go through while working on the premises and leading family life off the press. She also explained how she is beginning to understand the role of women employees in printing and packaging and was very hopeful that women have brighter and better days in this great industry, in days to come.
Sri Ravindra Babu, Vice President of the Southern Region of the All India Federation of Master Printers facilitated the release of brochures pertaining to National awards for Excellence in Printing and Global Awards for Excellence In Printing and explained the printers gathered there about the procedure of sending their nominations and underlined that such awards motivate the printers to produce high quality jobs economically.
The brochures were released by the distinguished international speakers in the presence of all the Governing Council members of TOPA and AIFMP, Southern Region. He prevailed upon the international printers also to compete for GAEP awards and requested them to forward their nominations too.
Sri Balasaheb Ambekar, President, Maharashtra Mudrana Parishada, Co Organiser of All in Print South and Sri Shanker Dani, President of Chattisgarh Printers Association were the two distinguished guests who were honoured by the TOPA and AIFMP office bearers. Sri D. Nagarjuna, Retd. HOD of the Govt. Institute of Printing Technology, Govt. of Telangana conducted the minute to minute proceedings of the Conference from the beginning till the end of the sessions.
In his Vote of Thanks Address, Sri S. Dayaker Reddy, National Coordinator, TOPA patiently thanked everyone by name for making this Conference a resounding success. He specially thanked the international speakers for immediately accepting to deliver lectures and presentations. He reserved special appreciation for Women Panel Members for readily agreeing to participate in the Panel Discussion. Technova was specially thanked for all the support in sponsoring the event and has always been very encouraging to promote print related educational activities like this Conference.
He made a special mention of the 80 year old Maharashtra doyen Sri Balasaheb Ambekar who sat through the entire proceedings of the international conference and he was thanked profusely.
