Organised by print industry veteran and BAPC chairman Sidney Bobb, there was a big focus on wide-format this year, with several speakers sharing business intelligence and best practice on building new revenue streams with wide-format equipment.

EFI’s Simon Casajuana worryingly highlighted research that shows almost two thirds of commercial printers, attracted by higher margins, expect wide-format to become a bigger ratio of their business in the next two years. Infotrends’ Barney Cox also pointed out that a wide-format machine is now in one third of print houses.

Keith D’Arcy Ryan, sales and business development manager at Wiltshire-based CopyColor, highlighted finishing as a key revenue stream for fully equipped wide-format print houses.

Indeed, speaking on a panel discussion, chaired by SignLink’s online editor Pádraig McGarrigle, D’Arcy Ryan said his business has picked up, ‘a nice line’ in finishing work from commercial print companies. He explained this is because many businesses in the sector have bought a wide-format device without considering the extra skill and investment required for finishing.

Public relations giant Duomedia put forward its social media expert, Stan Lemmens, who had delegates’ attention as he explained that you cannot just use the channel to sell, but need to ‘engage’ to get the most out of the medium. Xerox’s senior marketing manager, Kevin O’Donnell, picked up on the point counselling users to ‘listen’ and maximise their opportunities.

The Print Coach, Nick Devine, then rammed home the point that businesses should not be selling on price, but instead on the services they offer.

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