World Print and Communication Congress comes to SA shores
4 Nov 2004
With a mere three months to go before the World Print and Communication Congress (WPC8) gets underway in Cape Town, South Africa, January 24 - 28, 2005, the stage is being set for arguably the biggest industry event in the media and communications industry in South Africa to date, as players in the printing, packaging, graphics, design and communications arena gather from around the globe.
Bizcommunity.com has pledged its full support to this global event, and will be reporting weekly in the run up to the congress in January next year, fielding a team at the event to bring daily updates of the main speeches.
Speeches are cutting-edge and include global input on the future of newspapers and magazines; environmental concerns; packaging and publishing case studies from around the world; strategic and management experts; what advertisers want from print; and the power of print.
Of course, one of the main reasons to go in any event, is for the networking - which judging from the speaker panel alone, and the 1000 delegates expected - the majority from overseas - this is one opportunity not to be missed.
The World Print and Communication Forum (WPCF), hosts of WPC8, met last month in Chicago, USA, to highlight global print and communication industry issues and to determine the role of the WPCF in addressing these issues into the future.
President of the WPCF and Chief Executive of the Printing Industry Federation of South Africa, Chris Sykes, confirmed that reaction to the inaugural meeting held in the run up to WPC8, was extremely positive.
"Print touches every area of every person's life and the WPCF is committed to a number of initiatives that will elevate print to its rightful place in the media mix, ensuring that it is appropriately positioned in the minds of all consumers. The future of the industry depends on the strength of partnerships forged between suppliers, their customers and the end users of the medium, and the WPCF will promote this message utilising global platforms including the World Print and Communications Congress (WPC8)," explained Sykes.
A number of global industry players have pledged their support for WPC8 by way of sponsorship agreements. In addition to the platinum sponsorship announced by Sappi, major sponsorship support has been announced by Heidelberg, Xerox, Kodak and MAN Roland. Other substantial sponsorship has been forthcoming from Creo, Hewlett Packard, and Antalis Paper.
Sykes reported that WPC8 has received overwhelming support from the Japanese Federation of Printing Industries, with sizable contributions made by Komori, Toyo Ink, Oji Paper, Nippon Paper Industries and Dainippon, amongst many others.
"The support from the industry as a whole has been phenomenal, and proves that global print and communication players believe in the objectives of WPC8 and understand the importance the congress will play in addressing key global issues that affect every aspect of the industry," said Sykes.
The WPCF believes that WPC8 will offer the following:
Visit www.wpc8.com to find out more. The website offers comprehensive details on the supporting social events calendar, spouse programmes, accommodation options and full delegate booking information. There are only a limited number of delegates that may be accommodated at WPC8, so be sure to secure your place today.
About Louise Marsland
Louise Burgers (previously Marsland) is Founder/Content Director: SOURCE Content Marketing Agency. Louise is a Writer, Publisher, Editor, Content Strategist, Content/Media Trainer. She has written about consumer trends, brands, branding, media, marketing and the advertising communications industry in SA and across Africa, for over 20 years, notably, as previous Africa Editor: Bizcommunity.com; Editor: Bizcommunity Media/Marketing SA; Editor-in-Chief: AdVantage magazine; Editor: Marketing Mix magazine; Editor: Progressive Retailing magazine; Editor: BusinessBrief magazine; Editor: FMCG Files newsletter. Web: www.sourceagency.co.za.
