2018 Milan

1 June 2018

In June 2018, over 50 Intergraf members and printing industry specialists representing 19 European countries met at the occasion of the Print4All Fair in Milan, Italy to discuss Industry 4.0 and the role of younger generations in the future of the sector.

“If the industry does not change and move, it won’t be there in the future”, concluded Cees Verweij, President of Intergraf and Moderator of Print Matters for the Future: Print 4.0. This summing up of the conference underlined the prevailing conclusion of the day.

After being welcomed by Andrea Briganti, Co-Owner of the Print4All Fair, delegates listened to a full agenda of expert speakers. The day began with an overview of the Italian printing industry given by Giulio Olivotto, Chairman of LEGO S.p.A and Board Member of Intergraf’s Italian member association (and this year’s event host) Assografici. This was followed by the presentation of a recently completed project by Assografici about Industry 4.0 by Emanuele Bona, Vice President of Vincenzo Bona and Assografici, and Enrico Barboglio, CEO of the 4IT Group and STRATEGO Group and Coordinator of Assografici’s Scientific Committee. This valuable project analysed printing companies’ Industry 4.0 strategies, mapping out the most advantageous paths to improvement to help companies rise to the challenge of Industry 4.0. “If you don’t have data and new technology”, said Enrico Barboglio, “you can’t be a part of Industry 4.0”.

Later in the day, Head of Enterprise Marketing at Neopost Antony Paul and Dutch Student Arnold Martowidjojo both emphasised the importance of personalisation – for example in design, such as printed home décor, and direct mail, such as targeted advertising using the customer’s own name. According to Antony Paul, personalisation is “the future of our sector” because it engages customers “on their own terms”. Alberto Luppi of Sacchital developed this idea further in his presentation about packaging and the Internet of Things, by highlighting that “print can be the gateway to supplementary digital information”. An innovative case study about how printed materials can be designed to lead customers to additional digital information was given by Bram Dekker of Dekker Creatieve Media and Arjan Renkema of NoardCode. They introduced delegates to an augmented reality solution for the printing industry. Print Matters for the Future: Print 4.0 also featured a presentation from Intergraf’s 2018 Student Award Winner, Theresa Muecke, who presented her research about digital transformations in industrial digital printing.

Digitalisation and Industry 4.0 is extremely important for the printing industry, but likewise, so is attracting younger people to the sector. Andrea Gerosa, Founder of the European think tank about young people ThinkYoung presented how the younger generation looks at work and life. He clarified the importance of mobility and offering experiences in different countries, as well as the importance of facilitating learning opportunities and involving younger people in the workplace in horizontal – not vertical – working environments. Andrea also highlighted the importance for younger generations of being “good”. He explained that younger people want what they do to have purpose and impact, but they also need to be able to follow their own interests outside of work. “Either you embrace this, or you lose them”, explained Andrea.

 

Speakers

  • Cees Verweij, President of Intergraf
  • Andrea Briganti, Co-Owner of Print4All and Managing Director of ACIMGA
  • Giulio Olivotto, VP of Assografici and Chairman of L.E.G.O. S.p.A.
  • Antony Paul, Head of Enterprise Marketing at Neopost
  • Andrea Gerosa, Founder of ThinkYoung
  • Theresa Muecke, Intergraf Student Award Winner
  • Bram Dekker, Owner and Managing Director at Dekker Creative Media & Druck
  • Arjan Renkema, Co-Founder and Developer at NoardCode
  • Arnold Martowidjojo, Student
  • Alberto Luppi, Production and Investment at Sacchital
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