The third LMAI Conference held at aesthetically built Fairmont Hotel in the historical city of Jaipur, India was a unique event in the history of Indian label industry. 450 delegates from all zones of India congregated at the venue. Many of them came with families to enjoy and experience the deliberations of this conference whose theme was, “Changing Paradigms and Emerging Technologies”. Jaipur is the capital of the northern Indian state, Rajasthan and is its largest city. It was founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amer, after whom the city is named. The city today has a population of 6.66 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is known as the Pink City of India. The state of Rajasthan has so much of history that it evokes tourist interest and wish, to visit at any time. Many printers believed that due the summer heat a lot of industry colleagues will give it a miss and the total number of delegates will not reach the figure of 390 who attended the last conference in Goa. Defying the odds, printers landed in large numbers to reach an all time high figure of 450 delegates, recording an over 15% increase in the number of delegates. Eventually it was a full house and urgent requests for more participation compelled the organisers to take additional rooms in the adjoining hotel Le Meridian. 23 sponsors along with LMAI pooling in money from their own resources, helped to subsidies the conference fees providing value for money to the delegates. The Fairmont hotel is an excellent property, with awe inspiring architecture and decor, inspired by theMughal dynasty and Royal Rajputs. It is nestled amongst the majestic Aravalli hills, all 199 rooms and suites are elegantly decorated, to reflect a perfect blend of traditional Rajasthani décor and modern amenities.

 

 

 

As you enter the gates it gives you the feeling of entering a Royal fort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next morning at breakfast it was opportunity for peers in the industry to spend time with each other and renew friendship. The organizers were frantically ringing the bell to request printers to move to the conference hall. Sailesh Kapoor of Avery Dennison delivered the opening presentation and speaking on the imperative need to dwell on sustainability he said, “FINAT has made path breaking initiatives to promote sustainability and recycling, LMAI needs to emulate the same”. A rare time when the two industry bigwigs support the same event was seen at Jaipur, the Indian label fraternity was appreciative and recognized this. While Avery Dennison was the main sponsor yet UPM also supported the conference emphatically. Lee Unsworth of UPM Raflatac, also spoke on sustainability, he said it must be a joint effort amongst various constituents of the label industry and end users, else it would be difficult to take it forward. Thillai Ganapathy, of Esko Graphics spoke next on Standardization of Quality & Productivity Optimization through Automation in Pre-Press followed by Mike Buystedt, Vice President, Narrow Web North America, Flint Group Packaging and Narrow Web. He said, “LED curing system is the paradigm shift in printing technology”. Escalating raw material cost and reducing selling price is a matter of grave concern for printers, so as to retain a reasonable profit margin one needs to cut down waste. In an effort to advise label printers on this issue Samir Patkar MD Gallus India said, “Reduce the gap size in waste matrix and use short web path to lower cost”. 

 

 

 

 

Towards the end of the evening’s conference agenda it was time for a panel discussion with leading Indian label printers on the panel. The discussion was moderated by me personally and the audience found it extremely interesting as the audience heard fellow printers on important issues that the industry is facing. Those who were a part of the panel included Chandan Khanna of Ajanta Packaging, Amar Chhajed of Webtech Labels (Huhtamaki Group), B K Manjunath of Global Bangalore, Denver Annunciation of Janus International Mumbai, Arvind Shekhar of Sai Packaging Bangalore, Sanjeev Sondhi of Zircon, Hemanth Paruchuri of Pragati Pack Hyderabad and Rajesh Chadha of Update Prints. The panel deliberated over topics like profitability, need for innovation, impact of production waste, impact of online bidding, operator shortage, impact of Digital printing, government regulations and waste management. Online bidding and reverse auction has been troubling printers for quite some time now. They are unable to justify supplying at irrational prices that emanate out of online bidding. There is need for upgraded equipment so as to innovate and meet quality standards, but these equipments are expensive. Unreasonable low prices cannot support such high end expansion. Waste is another issue that needs to be addressed thoughtfully. Increased waste leads to decreased profitability and it also adds to the problem of disposal and its impact on the environment. Short runs have become a very important part of a label manufacturer’s profile. There is confusion in the flexo label converters mind whether they should complement existing printing capabilities with digital. Since the panel had printers who had invested in digital and those who have resisted in doing so. The discussion was quite an eye opener even though inconclusive. Sustainability is being talked about at length but our industry in India is not clear about the difference in sustainability and waste management. They do have overlapping issues but for the time being our printers are not attending to waste management and proper disposal, so sustainability is a little far cry. I guess that initiative will have to be driven by brand owners. It was a very thought provoking session and had to be cut short due to paucity of time. The views of the printers drew participation from the audience as well making the session even more interactive and interesting. As the deliberations came to an end the bar was thrown open for printers to network over drinks, a standup comedian enthralled the crowds followed by light entertainment. It was just a matter of point when the delegates in party mood were on to the dancing floor till late after midnight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 I must praise the innovative alternative; “Round Table interaction” between the printer delegates and the sponsors, arranged by the organizers. This initiative I understand was the brainchild of conference chairman Gururaj Ballarwad. All the sponsors were allotted round tables in two different rooms and groups of ten printers were made to sit on each table and witness private presentations by the sponsors. The groups were moved around so that in turn they visit each and every sponsors table where they could also exchange business cards with all printer members. This way the sponsors could meet all the printers who came. This was in sharp contrast to the organizers directive to sponsors speaking at the conference, where they were not allowed to make any sales pitch of their products in their speeches. This was emphatically enforced by the conference chairman. He wished that all speakers should deliver technical knowledge to the delegates and not become sales persons of their company’s product range. To increase the indulgence of label printers at the round table interaction each person was given a passport that had to be stamped by the sponsor whose table they visit. All the completed passports were then taken in for a lucky dip to draw winners who got lucky prizes. The sponsors and delegates found this event extremely interesting and innovative.