More than 170 participants from eight countries attended the Balkan Print Forum under manroland's patronage in October 2009 in Bucharest, Romania.

Especially under the influence of the recent economic crisis it appeared most important to exchange information about the development of the printing industry in Europe and Eastern Europe in particular, about the major innovations in the printing industry today, as well as about process management and optimization in printing companies. The Balkan managers and printers are convinced that exchanging knowledge about modern print technology will help them for improving of quality, profitability and competitiveness of their printing companies. Therefore the next meeting of the Balkan printers will take place in Budapest, Hungary, in October 2010.

Representatives of the national printing federations, of the graphic arts schools and universities, and of the trade press of Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia; specialists, experts and managers from the Romanian printing industry; as well as customers, experts and managers from manroland, UPM and Sun Chemical shared know-how and intensified contacts. Thomas Hauser, Vice President Corporate Marketing & Communications manroland, presented his „Perspective Print 2020 – Future Prospects of Printing Industry and Print Media". He pointed out the challenges of the graphic arts industry today: "It is obvious that the economic crisis leads to a (self-) confidence crisis. Technology and innovation leadership are and remain essential success factors. The importance of networks is rising. Sustainability and efficient utilization of resources will become crucial decision-making criteria."

Dr. Rossitza Velkova, coordinator of the Balkan Print Forum, expressed the ambition of the member countries to act as an active regional print media community. The participants had the opportunity to visit two Romanian printing houses. The company Elixir Press in Bucharest, founded in 1994, is specialized in entertainment publications, mainly magazines. It is market leader in the field of publishing crosswords. EDS Romania, founded in 2008, is specialized in heatset web offset printing of retail leaflets and mass-market magazines. About a year ago the printing house was equipped with two heatset web offset LITHOMAN printing presses.