Labelexpo India started their season of exciting forum events with two hugely successful international events in Colombo and Dhaka in August 2018, drawing enthusiastic visitors in droves. The story was the same when Labelexpo India finally returned to Indian soil to host five more forums in October and November – Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Pune and Jammu, giving stakeholders the most conducive atmosphere to interact on a common platform.
Held between August and November, the seven events welcomed 860 visitors – including many from the commercial printing community looking to diversify to label business. Importantly, the events seem to have fulfilled their principal objective of finding new faces for exhibitors.
Pradeep Saroha, event manager at Labelexpo India said, “The whole objective of the Labelexpo forums this year was to find new faces for our exhibitors. There was a constant request from them for quite some time now to do something interesting to bring in new visitors to the exhibition which otherwise was mostly frequented by the same label converters every year. With the label industry growing in double digits, and commercial printers looking at exploring this market, what better could we offer to our esteemed exhibitors?”
Saroha traveled extensively to the different places for at least twelve months in the run up to the forums, meeting association members and local printers to put things in place to make them successful.
Shailesh Sharma, senior manager, technical services (narrow web) packaging inks, Flint Group, who participated in the Rajkot and Ahmedabad events, said, “As an ink and pressroom chemicals manufacturer, I feel these forums were an excellent opportunity to introduce Flint Group to a highly experienced group of professionals. We had some very fruitful discussions with people who intend to enter the narrow web segment.”
He added that today the term ‘narrow web’ is used instead of ‘label printing’ as this industry not only prints labels but also shrink sleeves, tags and tickets. Earlier, speaking at one of the forums, he also enlightened the gathering about various narrow web ink technologies like UV curable, water based, LED curable and their applications. His presentation also included an explanation on low migration – its concept, importance and product offerings from the company.
Manish Kapoor, of Nilpeter, who participated in all the seven events, said, “ The Labelexpo forums held in the run up to the main event were a thumping success. Encouraging attendance was seen at all locations with the local associations of the respective regions going that extra mile to spread awareness about the upcoming Labelexpo India 2018 at India Expo Mart & Centre, Greater Noida, from 22-25 November 2018.”
Another participator, Kishore Kumar, of NBG, said, “The idea to organize roadshows as part of Labelexpo India was a novel one by Tarsus; the execution was also equally good. These roadshows made it easier for the printer community to explore opportunities available in label printing; meanwhile, exhibitors were able to connect with new customer bases for their equipment and services. We at NBG have participated in six road shows and the enthusiasm of host associations and printers was really good. These shows also presented a good opportunity for networking. We would like to congratulate Pradeep and Tarsus for the good job they have done and wish them all the best.”
The Pune forum which took place in end October was graced by the newly elected president of All India Federation Of Master Printers (AIFMP), Raveendra Joshi. He requested that his fellow printers visit the Labelexpo India 2018 exhibition, which according to him will be a window of opportunity. He said, “Labelexpo India is happening at a time when it was much needed by the printer community. Many among us probably keep wondering how to diversify into the labels business, but unfortunately with no one to guide or advise us. The Labelexpo India event will be graced by experts and engineers from all major press and equipment manufacturers who will answer your queries and doubts. In fact, this is an event happening at the right time and in the right place for commercial printers like us. We should not miss this opportunity.”
An attendee at the Labelexpo forum in Jammu said, “The forum was incredible. The speakers were fully successful in giving us a bird’s eye view of what the label industry is like. It was truly a learning experience.”
Sponsored by Nilpeter, NBG, HP, Fujifilm Sericol, Flint Group and Avery Dennison, the Labelexpo India 2018 forums were organized in association with Sri Lanka Association of Printers, Bangladesh Mudran Shilpa Samity, Rajkot Printing & Packaging Association, Ahmedabad Printing Press Association, Kerala Master Printers Association, Poona Press Owners Association and J&K Offset Printers Association.
— Mahan Hazarika.
