Very rarely does a month go by in this industry where there’s nothing new that genuinely surprises me. A successful Canadian Printable Electronics Symposium took place last month in Montreal and attracted over 120 industry stakeholders, governments and academia. They came together to support Canada’s opportunities in the global market for printable and organic electronics. But what was even more intriguing was that The Canadian Printable Electronics Industry Association (CPEIA) and PAC Packaging Consortium have partnered to explore how printable and organic electronics can transform the packaging industry. One priority is to address waste. For example, one-third of the world’s food goes to waste. It’s predicted that ‘intelligent packaging’ enabled by printable electronics could drive one of the greatest advances to reduce waste in the packaging industry since the adoption of recycling. We’ll keep you posted.
The other news item that caught my eye was RockTenn’s two production records. Its folding carton team in Kentucky set two world records recently by printing more than 9 million sheets in one month and more than 357,000 sheets in one day! That number of sheets laid end-to-end would equal the length of more than 142,500 football fields! Strange, but I don’t seem to recall a run that big when I started out as a commercial printer in Toronto in 1979.
Speaking of amazing, the ideas of graphic arts students about to enter our industry seem both endless and inspiring. Diane Brown’s Inspired Projects feature looks at three business ideas from over 100 senior Graphic Communications Management students at Ryerson University, presented at their recent 2015 Business Plan Expo in Toronto. And there’s more. Though it’s a year down the road, Jason Lisi has a must-read lead feature on an exciting and reinvented drupa 2016 set for May 31 to June 10 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Also in this issue, social media guru Neal Schaffer shares eleven essential components of a successful social media strategy, and Tony Curcio concludes his 3-part series on 3D products and services and how to market them.
At press time, the Stanley Cup playoffs were well underway, with intense action and many games decided in overtime or by one goal. Being a proud Canadian, I’m predicting that the winner will be the Montreal Canadiens. Needless to say, by the time you read this, their players and coaches may be on the golf course!
Finally, I’d like to congratulate Kathy Dunka of Woodbridge, Ontario, who was the winner of a two-day trip to Niagara Falls in our special draw at last month’s Toronto tradeshow.
As always, stay positive and stay focused.