January 18, 2008 - It's pervasive. It's a $700 billion dollar a year "industry." And it's illegal.

It's counterfeiting, and because experts estimate that increasingly sophisticated fakes and forgeries move upwards of $700 billion a year worldwide  - with at least $350 billion attributed to print, packaging or labels - Graphics of the Americas will host the most comprehensive conference on the topic in the western hemisphere, to date.

The Raw Truth about Print Counterfeiting
The Brand Protection Conference will be one of the hottest items on the agenda when Graphics of the Americas returns to Miami Beach February 28 - March 1. Taking place February 28 and 29, the Brand Protection Conference is where thousands of Graphics of Americas attendees can hear the raw and often terrifying facts about counterfeiting, and then learn the strategies that will protect them and their clients from being vulnerable or worse, compromised.

Critical Information for Printers
"We've got to stop thinking this problem is confined to designer luxury products," says George Ryan, president of GOA and PAF. "Vital documents - documents that are relevant to people's lives and their welfare - are being 'hacked' and reproduced.

"Printers should not view learning about this as an option. I haven't seen anything this critical, because of its potential to do so much damage, in my career. It's a must."

Incredibly, the sheer scale of counterfeiting has escaped notice of all but a few, because brands aren't eager to spread the word that their product lines, including printing and packaging, have been contaminated.   Dick Warner, a security consultant and one of the premier anti-counterfeiting experts in graphic arts, is speaker chair for the Conference. He says that the desire of major brands to keep their counterfeiting troubles on the QT is just one of many disturbing and sometimes shocking facts about this growing problem.

The Brand Protection Conference is sponsored by GOA, PAF, HP, TUV Rheinland and Videojet; as well as Package Design, RFID Product News, and Converting Magazines.

Conference content was created for Contract Packagers, Design Directors, Creative/Art Directors, Structural/Graphic Packagers, Production Workflow Specialists, Vice Presidents of Production, Production Managers and Prepress Managers.

Customers Are Being Affected
"People will be surprised, and perhaps taken aback by the audacity of counterfeiters," says Chris Lyons, whose publishing house is home to the Package Design and RFID Product News titles. "But most importantly, they'll recognize that they need to face this issue head on, and be prepared to deal with it - because more of their customers are being affected and those customers are already looking for printers who can assure them that they are utilizing the best protection methods possible for their products."

As a result, Warner and his colleagues have assembled well-known CPCs; internationally-renowned, top-clearance security consultants, and manufacturers of protection solutions, to bring GOA this compelling session series.

Procter & Gamble Keynote
Attendees may want to forego coffee in light of the jolt they'll get when powerhouse Procter and Gamble's External Relations Leader for Global Operations, Paul Fox, kicks the conference off with his keynote, "Threats that Companies Face from Counterfeiters, Knockoffs and Fakes."

Conference Culminates in Demonstration
Tension will rise - "a healthy tension," Warner says - with follow-on discussions about security printing techniques, security inks, DNA, near IR dye taggants, holograms, RFID, design, machine vision and more - until the Friday morning session where Warner and Greg Bassinger, who was manager of the process controls department at the former GATF and is today a consultant, will demonstrate the ease in which even the most vital, and long trusted, documents, can be counterfeited.

Session leaders will discuss the latest trends and techniques in anti-counterfeiting at sessions including:

Converting Packaging Substrates to Security End
Products: Overt/Covert/Forensic Security Printing
Techniques and Packaging Design Options

Security Printing Inks -
Overt/Covert and Forensic Counterfeit Deterrents

Holograms: Security Packaging and Design

Knockoffs, Counterfeits and Deterrents

Serialization, Authentication, Verification,
Codes and Digital Solutions

For 2008, Graphics of the Americas will be held February 27 through March 1, 2008, providing a one-of-a-kind international event that showcases the convergence of industry knowledge, products, and technology. For more information and to register for the Brand Protection Conference, call 1-800-331-0461 or visit http://www.graphicsoftheamericas.com. Outside the United States and Canada, dial 407-240-8009.