On 30 July 2008, the Share to Benefit forum of the Mumbai Master Printers Association held a post-drupa event to discuss some of the outcomes of the enormous energy, time and money spent by the print industry in attending drupa. A panel of industry vendors and printers was attempted to share their perspective on the show’s highlights.

Futurology
The event began with a futuristic presentation describing technology and our industry by an Indian speaker. Rajendrakumar Ayanath, the head of Heidelberg’s Print Media Academy in Chennai first created a context of the Indian print industry’s recent high growth and the likelihood of it growing at the highest rate in the world in the next five to ten years. He then presented the convergence of new technologies and markets in a way that looks at macro categories of human activity rather than specific industries.
Rajendrakumar described humanity’s recent past as one in which there has been an increasing overlap and convergence of content, computing and convergence. The modern printing industry is in the forefront of this convergence and one of its clearest examples. He then predicted that the next historical cycle would lead to a convergence of media, manufacturing, and medicine. As an example he described the potential use of inkjet technology for three-dimensional printing being used to actually fabricate organic objects including body parts!
 
Suffice to say that this messenger from the future created excitement and inspiration in a roomful of printers. A couple of weeks later an Oce reseller described how their printers are used to create 3D models out of glue and coloured material that is ink-jetted layer by layer. From his car he brought a 3D model of a power turbine that had been designed in CAD program and physically proofed as a hard three dimensional sample. Several of these machines are already installed in engineering design firms around the country.
 
The program
As far as the drupa impressions part of the program, Pranav Parikh provided the best and briefest overview and additionally made the point that drupa08 was a great experience for the Indian print industry. The Indian presence at drupa showed that the torch has been passed to a well-informed, hard working and decisive new generation of print entrepreneurs, which speaks well for its future.
The panelists seem to reflect the recent resurgence of the print industry in Mumbai and Western India with large investments made at drupa08, predominantly in heavy metal, but also in digital printing. They shared some hard won insights on the buying cycle and deal making with large international manufacturers.
 
The training problem
Towards the end of the question and answer time, one impertinent young man almost spoiled the party by asking, “Where is the skilled manpower for these new investments going to come from?” There were several interesting responses, including one from Rajendranath that pointed out that as a society we have neglected skills, industrial and vocational education. The implication is that we are not training those who actually want to and need to work in our print businesses. The larger issue – of the supposedly fastest growing print industry not having or even supporting a single training institution with a modern multicolour press was left largely unanswered.
 
Can the printers create common platforms beyond politics?
The education and training issue highlights the industry’s basic lack of vision, and hence its lack of unity. The factional politics of print associations has to stop sooner than later; and better leadership has to be found that can address larger issues on an ongoing basis. As was pointed out by the panelists, the larger issues include industry research, plant safety and health, environment, and training.