Features Craft Opinion
Trending ahead: Starting off 2020 with a review of the past

The start of a new year brings new opportunities. It’s a time for reflection and analysis, goal setting and future planning — a chance to mull over what worked, what didn’t and the various opportunities your team can better capitalize on in the next 12 months. The first step to successfully plan for the future is to reflect on the past. What major projects and tasks did your business take on? How were they successful? What obstacles came up? Start by listing out the different achievements your business, department or team hit in 2019.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life,” Steve Jobs, Apple Co-Founder, once said.

At the end of every year, I like to look back and review the events of the past 12 months and reflect on how things have changed. Our December enewsletter highlights 25 of the most significant moments of 2019 that have driven Canada’s printing industry. From Friesens’ continued shift into digital production, to the passing of print trailblazer Mary Black, MET Fine Printers’ new Vancouver headquarters, and CJ Graphics’ monumental Benny wins, what a year it was. Visit http://ow.ly/5gw750y2Dvc to see our complete list.

To mark the new decade, we compiled a list of our most-read news stories from 2010 to 2019. Flip to page 14 and join us for a walk down memory lane as we recap these top PrintAction.com articles. It was certainly a period of consolidation and business turbulence, with the majority of the stories being company closures, acquisitions and bankruptcy filings. Here’s an interesting tidbit — two of our top-read articles of all time are also on this list: The 2017 passing of Hemlock Printers’ Dick Kouwenhoven, and the 2019 Canada Post stamp price increase.

How do you intend to make your mark this year? Will 2020 be the year your business expands its services and capabilities? Or perhaps you and your team have decided to focus on operational efficiencies as you strive to minimize makeready times, costs and waste. The new year might also serve as the time to refocus your company brand and culture.

Consider this advice from Michael Dell, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Dell: “You don’t need to be a genius or a visionary, or even a college graduate for that matter, to be successful. You just need framework and a dream.”

Here at PrintAction, we have reinvigorated our portfolio to ensure we meet and exceed your needs. We are entering this new decade with a refreshed attitude and will continue to keep you informed with timely, accurate and insightful content across our print, digital and social media platforms. The thing I’m looking forward to most in 2020? Attending my first drupa tradeshow in June. PrintAction is delighted to bring you pre- and post-show coverage, as well as live updates throughout the enormous trade fair. Messe Düsseldorf is estimating that well over 250,000 visitors and 1,800+ exhibitors from 50 countries are expected to attend drupa 2020. If past drupas are any indication, the innovation on display this summer will undoubtedly reiterate that print remains a powerful tool, even if how it is produced and consumed continues to evolve.

“It has become very apparent in recent years that the appeal of print products is growing as the technology steadily advances,” says Sabine Geldermann, Director of drupa and Global Head of Print Technologies at Messe Düsseldorf. “Print is conquering new dimensions with haptic elements, innovative materials and finishing techniques that engage the senses in previously unknown ways for an entirely new experience.”

According to Smithers research, the worldwide print industry remains in a stage of transition. Total print volumes are forecast broadly and unchanged at 49.5 trillion A4 sheets between 2019 and 2024. During the same period, overall value will increase at 1.3 percent year-on-year in real terms, from US$818 billion in 2019 to US$874 billion in 2024, an indication that value-adding potential still exists.

“Global print is in good shape overall,” according to the 6th drupa Global Trends Report, released by Messe Düsseldorf in spring 2019. “Clearly there are some regions doing better than others. Equally there are stronger and weaker markets. The industry has found its collective confidence again after the twin shocks of the last decade — the global recession and the impact of digital media.”

We can’t wait to see what the new year brings. As always, thank you for your continued support throughout the past year. From all of us at PrintAction, we wish you a happy, safe and prosperous 2020.

This feature was originally published in the January/February 2020 issue of PrintAction, now available online.