The last issue of 2016 is taking a look back as well as a look forward. The year has been filled to the brim with unlikely news, leaving many of us feeling like anything can happen come 2017. Our Editor, Tony Curcio, takes a look back month-by-month to review some of our top stories. Reading them in aggregate definitely gave me the sense that our industry is focused on growth in digital print technology. Even traditional equipment suppliers are partnering with digital counterparts to move us towards (what looks to me like) a hybrid future.
In a look forward, Diana Varma reviews some great reading material for the coming holiday season. We are lucky to have a columnist who is a binge reader of business non-fiction! I will throw an additional goodie into the mix and suggest you pick up The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau, not because you want to start a business, but because it’s great to be reminded that the way business happens today is vastly different from in the past.
In another forward looking read, John Foley Jr. takes us through considerations for multi-channel marketing. I love his analogy of “objects in the mirror” which discusses that we know that multi-channel is coming, but some of us have not realized how fast this is going to happen. In attending this year’s Canadian Printing Awards I was so excited by the talent in the room – projects and companies who are exceptionally forward looking, and certainly know that our industry’s future is in an integrated/smart/multi-everything approach.
I send my sincere congratulations to all of the Industry Achievement winners who included: Hadi Mahabadi, former Director, Xerox Research Centre of Canada (and always the smartest person in the room) who won the John A. Young Lifetime Achievement Award, Jamie Barbieri, President, PDI Group Inc. who won the Printing Leader of the Year award, Jeff Ekstein, President, Willow Printing Group Ltd. who (very much in character) used most of his acceptance speech to promote the Canadian Scholarship Trust Fund as he won the Community Leader of the Year Award, and last but not least my fellow alumnus, Todd Cober, Vice President, Cober Solutions, who was recognized as the Emerging Leader of the Year.
As we reflect on 2016 I am excited and hopeful that 2017 will be one for the books!