We received a "Special Announcement" from PIA President & CEO Michael Makin that outlines further progress in cooperation with NAPL. The message was sent to PIA membership this morning and discusses a recent meeting by top leaders in both organizations. The full statement is in the extended post.
Dear Printing Industries of America Member:
NAPL and Printing Industries of America, the two largest graphic arts trade associations in the country, are pleased to announce a formal plan to collaborate on a number of projects going forward.
The leadership of the two organizations met earlier this month in Charlotte to explore where collaboration made sense for the benefit of their collective memberships. Both associations were represented by their respective Chief Executive Officers, as well as their current and immediate past Chairmen (Michael Makin, Bill Gibson, and Ken Kaufman for Printing Industries of America, and Joseph Truncale, Keith Kemp, and Steve Johnson for NAPL).
“We are pleased with the progress we made during these discussions,” said Joseph P. Truncale, President and Chief Executive Officer of NAPL. “We were able to identify opportunities to bring greater value to our members and to the industry at large.”
“In the current economic environment, it is critical that we explore how we can work together,” added Michael Makin, President and CEO of Printing Industries of America.
Two immediate projects were identified and agreed upon.
1.) Both associations have agreed to work with their Graphic Arts Show Company partner, NPES, to develop a spring management conference beginning in 2011. This industry-wide event will combine the Printing Industries of America President’s Conference, NAPL Top Management Conference, and NPES Annual Spring Meeting into one comprehensive event that will bring together the best that each meeting has to offer. Oversight and management of the event will be shared among all three organizations through the GASC structure.
Planning for this event will commence early in 2010 and benefit from the combined efforts of each association’s professional staff and volunteer leadership. A conference steering committee will be formed to provide direction and oversight to the program planning and promotion.
“We are very excited to see this consolidation of events so that industry leaders no longer have to choose a top leadership program each year,” said Makin.
“We believe this event will be a ‘must-attend’ for all industry executives,” said Truncale.
2.) The organizations have agreed to collaborate on major issues facing the printing and graphic communications industry today, including the need to craft and communicate a positive message about print to media specifiers, educators, and legislative and regulatory bodies. While acknowledging the efforts currently being made in these areas, both organizations believe the added strength from the combined efforts of Printing Industries of America and NAPL can generate even greater results that will benefit all industry stakeholders.
The organizations will meet again in early 2010 to monitor progress on these initiatives and assess continuing discussions.
Sincerely,
Michael Makin
President & CEO
Printing Industries of America
Discussion
By Patrick Henry on Nov 16, 2009
Consolidation clearly is in the air, given this announcement and today's other bombshell, the acquisition of Océ by Canon. Methinks we'd all better brace for more news of this kind...
By John Henry on Nov 16, 2009
When have two weak players merging resulted in one stronger viable player? Not as simple or often as we would hope.
I think we need one voice and this moves a step in that direction.
The bottom line is if/when they merge how they cut staff and overhead. You cannot keep two locations and duplicate jobs/departments.
By Patrick Berger on Nov 17, 2009
We're past survival of the fittest. If the don't become one there will be none.
By Clint Bolte on Nov 23, 2009
PIA+NAPL does not really seem to add much value to either of the membership bases. Would certainly save suppliers cash from supporting duplicate efforts as has been discussed.
However, lets focus for a moment on the third national "association" -WTT. Who says you have to have the word in your name to be one?
1). In recent weeks WTT added M&A and peer group facilitation services, like the other associations.
2). Has had consulting services since its beginning and continually expanding topical specialties.
3). Its timely reporting and analysis of breaking news leaves the national printing trade press in its wake much less PIA & NAPL who post such announcements on their web sites weeks after the fact if at all.
4). Educational venues - seminars, featured conference speakers & panel discussions, and webinars are among the best attended in the industry. (This was & is the backbone of association services.)
5). To add insurance, equipment price discounts, and other coop type economy of scale buying value for its subscribers would seem a logical next initiative.
6). To become the "go to" source for other value added specialties such as wide format digital printing, mailing, fulfillment, managed print services, in-plant issues would seem to be as easy as finding specialty experts as they have with Creative Design and Paper.
7). All of this has been so well received by the industry universal due to the succinct daily e-zine ... tried by others, but come up short.
Whoever acquires WTT (PIA or NAPL) would seem to add extreme value to its membership. However, it would require creative financing to prevent membership dues from going through the ceiling to pay for the acquisition. The remaining national association would be in an interesting strategic position.
By Michael J on Nov 24, 2009
Clint,
Thanks for the eye opening run down of what an "association" really is in a networked world. I wonder if venture capital might take a look at this space the same way they are entering the education space.
The economies of online collaboration and asynchronous communication are very hard to realize with a legacy organization. I've been following this in education.There are many examples of venture capital activity. The one i find most telling is Jack Welch, who has started an onine MBA program which offers an MBA for $26,000. Substantially less than a traditional University.
Given the new possibilities of the "free to the user" economy, there could be a model that is not based on dues from members.
Discussion
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