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.
The beating of traditional drums, playing of the Rajasthani musical instrument Sarangi and the traditional welcome by applying a tikka on your forehead adds to the pleasure of being welcomed in a typically local fashion.
The three day conference was started with the lighting of the lamp by conference chairman Gururaj Ballarwad and General Secretary of LMAI R L Deshpande. Vivek Kapoor President LMAI welcomed the guests which included India’s topmost label printers, Indian and international suppliers of materials, toolings and printing presses. He informed that the LMAI membership had grown from a modest 65 in 2004 to a sizable 295 in 2015. He reminisced that the first conference at Goa in 2011 had set the tone of this being a preferred label event for the Indian label industry and lead to the success of the second edition in 2013. The overwhelming response and attendance at Jaipur has confirmed that this biennial event will be looked forward to, on an ongoing basis. He also informed that the association had become financially strong so as to support industry benefitting initiatives. Vivek informed the gathering that It was also a time to celebrate LMAI having become a teenager as it was 13 years ago on this day the association was formed. This was followed by felicitating of LMAI committee members, founder members and senior members. A cake cutting ceremony was held onstage to celebrate LMAI’s 13th birthday. Jitesh Mehta marketing Director of Avery Dennison delivering the keynote address and stressing the role consumerism is playing in bringing global attention to Indian markets said, “Emerging technologies are bursting into the market, generating disruption and change. It is necessary to have a new paradigm, based on multi-disciplinary approach”.
Representing Tarsus, Labelexpo show Director Jade Grace took the stage next to inform details about the upcoming Labelexpo Europe in Brussels. Tarsus is a big supporter of LMAI and Vivek Kapoor acknowledged this in his inaugural speech. Jade welcomed the delegates to visit the show in Brussels which is likely to be the biggest ever in the 35 year history of Labelexpo. The evening ended with Rajasthani musicians playing “Padharo Mare Desh” which means welcome to my land. Drinks and networking dinner followed…
Ajay Mehta Managing Director of SMI Coated Papers emphasized that printers should modernise. He said,” label printers need to keep investing in upgraded equipment to remain successful & become solution providers”. Manish Kapoor, National Sales Head of Nilpeter in India made a very interesting presentation. Printers were applauding when he mentioned that our printers were firemen involved in firefighting sitting in their factories. He further advised, “Invest wisely in "what you need"& not "what is available" when adding capacity!” Later Mike Russell – International Sales Director, Mark Andy Inc. speaking on Modern Solutions for Label Printing stressed on the imperative need of having cleaner label factories, “Good housekeeping leads to production of good quality labels in a label printing company".

Next morning there were some who were missing from the breakfast nursing the after effects of a late night and there more new faces that had come in during the previous day. Printers were lazily moving around in groups chatting and catching up with friends while the organizers were urging them to proceed to the conference hall. The day started with a presentation by Gavin Rittmeyar Vice President – Sales and Marketing of Martin Automatic USA manufacturers of extensive line of automatic splicing unwinds, automatic transfer rewinds and tension control systems. Expressing the need of automation in reducing waste he said, "Any resource or service that does not add value to the product is waste!” Thereafter presentations were made by A Appadurai of HP, Jurgen Brau Head of Inspection Technology, Erhardt+Leimer GmbH speaking on 100% inspection systems, Prashant Atre Managing Director, Toyo Ink Arets Graphics and Tej Prakash Jain Managing Director, Monotech Systems Limited before delegates dispersed for lunch.
All the time while the conference was in progress, a table top exhibition was in progress where sponsors were exhibiting with their catalogues. Delegates would walk over to the table top exhibition area during coffee/tea or lunch breaks.
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.
All the delegates then retired to their rooms to rest and prepare for the gala evening in the Grand Ball Room, which had been the venue for the conference. When the delegates returned the hall had been transformed to match its theme, “Merchant of Venice”. A gondola was erected for people to get photographed as if they were in Venice. On the other side a balcony was popping out overlooking the waterway with two European girls standing there. Delegates were seen going on to the balcony to get photographed, one by one.
The bar was thrown open and entertainment was in the air. Russian dancers made interesting presentations and a surprising presentation came from the talented Nikita, daughter of SMI, Managing Director Ajay Mehta. She sang extremely well.
This was followed by a very energetic Bollywood singer Shyamlee taking the stage and singing popular songs and eventually she had the audience dancing to her songs and moves.
The dance floor was house full, the bar was still delivering drinks and it was almost 2 AM in the
morning that I slipped away to my room. It had been a vibrant and exciting conference. Every delegate was involved in the deliberations and fun. They loved the arrangements and kept thanking the LMAI committee members for the wonderful time they had at Jaipur.
Next morning while some delegates had already left, others were still trying to shake off the after effects of drinking and yet others like me trickled into the restaurant for breakfast and one last meeting with friends before departing. With whoever I could meet and greet I said my byes and thank you’s, with wonderful memories of a great event I started my drive back to Delhi.
More pictures:
Anil Sharma Managing Director,
South Asia & Sub Saharan Africa
with Harveer Sahni
|
Kuldip Goel Anygraphics & Amit Sheth Label Planet |
Ferdinand Ruesch of Gallus and his wife with Harveer Sahni |
Jade Grace, Show Director Labelexpo |
*This article is exclusively written for Narrow Web Tech Germany and may not be reproduced without permission.
Written by Harveer Singh Sahni, Managing Director, Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi, India July 2015