In response to the current crisis the world is experiencing, FM Future announces the first FuturePrint Virtual Summit (2-4 June 2020).

Free for all attendees and participants, the objective of the summit is to provide an online platform to connect the international print industry, to facilitate knowledge sharing, valuable networking, product and service updates and provide the inspiration and support to stimulate business during and beyond this very challenging period.

#StaySafeStayConnected

Co-Director Marcus Timson begins, “In March, FuturePrint launched a series of webinars for April under the theme ‘Stay Safe, Stay Connected’, and these generated some surprising interest. So, we then thought why not extend this to provide a more significant level of content, across a wider spectrum of print? Our thinking is that we want to simply extend and amplify this value and in so doing, help the market to connect and gain access to some quality insight delivered by experts, leaders, and other professionals and partners within the sector – at a time when we all need it the most.”

Co-Director, Frazer Chesterman continues, “The Coronavirus has massively impacted on face-to-face events across the world. We, FM Future are part of the event community and we can see that a number of our event colleagues in different sectors have already made use of amazing virtual technology to help hold their communities together. Being part of the Print industry for nearly 20 years, and having such large networks, we are uniquely placed to use this virtual technology to help the print community remain connected and to ensure we share good ideas and great technology. And importantly, we felt that it was crucial that this be a ‘free to participate and attend’ initiative, to ensure that any business could take part without further financial pressure.”

Graham Kennedy, Ricoh Europe, is a strategic partner for FuturePrint and explains, “We as an industry need to come together and this dateline is helpful as by then I’m sure we will have more clarity over the direction we need to take. The market has had a shock over the past few weeks and to some extent, I sense we are all assembling our thoughts to understand what this means going forward. The FuturePrint Virtual Summit, taking place 2-4 June, will provide us with a really useful platform to connect and hear the latest thinking but to also share some of the projects and innovations that are being worked on. We look forward to the positive outcome it will have.”

How will it be structured?

3 days, 3 print sectors taking place 2-4 June comprising of pre-recorded and live sessions.

The summit will include content on Commercial Print, Wide Format Print, Industrial Print and Packaging.

What kind of format, how will it work?
Webinar Panel Discussions
Interviews and Fireside Chats
Short Presentations
Virtual Coffee and Networking

Collaborative, not Commercial

Ben Dodson, Managing Director of leading graphic arts Marketing and PR Company, Bespoke, and supporting partner continues, “Frazer, Marcus and I have worked together over the years in a variety of different projects. In these unprecedented times when we are removed from our places of work, our ability to connect face-to-face is reduced, but the need to learn, gain insight, help and educate remains. This current crisis will be temporary but is nonetheless significant. This initiative will provide a virtual place where people can come to learn, network and dip in and out of panel discussions, interviews and presentations.

Importantly, the summit is not looking to capitalise on or replace the events or tradeshows that couldn’t run in 2020 – hence why it’s free for all - but instead, be a one-off source of help to stimulate ideas and enable business to make critical changes today, or make smart plans for a successful reboot once life returns to normal.”

What kind of investment is required?

For participants, there is no cost, and no financial investment other than people’s time.

Why?

The marketplace is under stress, so this virtual summit is designed to help, which is why there is no financial barrier to getting involved, as it is free for all to attend. It is not for profit.

However, we do ask participants to self-promote their participation! We do ask media partners to communicate with their community about the event.

Of course, we want to have media partners, and where possible we would be interested in involving media partners in hosting panels and discussions. And we want to involve leaders in print tech, printers, consultants, agencies, designers and other participants.

The spirit and the goals for this event are for it to be collaborative. If you are interested in participating, speaking, supporting or enquiring please do register here and make it clear what kind of interest you have in the event.

Who is supporting the event?

Already, we have the support of FuturePrint Partners: Ricoh Europe, Integration Technology, Kavalan, Meteor Inkjet, Sihl, Sun Chemical, Global Inkjet Systems, Inca Digital, Memjet and Kao Collins. Other supporting organisations include strategic marketing partner Bespoke and digital marketing partner 3B Digital.

Who are we?

Frazer and Marcus previously ran the FESPA Shows from 2003 up until 2011, then launched FM Brooks and launched EcoPrint, and the InPrint Shows. After exiting in 2019, Marcus and Frazer established FM Future, a strategic consultancy designed to help print and events business improve their communication and storytelling.

Join us!!

Register your interest here https://futureprint.tech/futureprintvirtualsummit 

If you would like to participate, promote, become a speaker, partner or simply discuss some ideas please do contact either Marcus Timson at [email protected] or Frazer Chesterman at [email protected]