In September 2009 PrintCity Alliance member's manroland, Sappi, Sun Chemical, Trelleborg and UPM completed a highly successful interactive seminar day in Kiev, the Ukraine, which attracted around 70 delegates on the subject Share The Experience & Master The Challenge.
 
Ukrainian Printers & publishers gathered at Kiev's President Hotel to hear presentations from PrintCity Alliance members on sheetfed printing, packaging and web fed printing topics, under the moderation of Marina Fedotova, editorial director of Web Printing and Direktor Tipografii (Director of Printing Houses) magazines
 
The seminar included discussion of new business possibilities coming from the latest value added printing & packaging applications, techniques and materials. A concluding interactive round table panel session allowed attendees to discuss specific questions with the experts and benefit from all the experience of alliance members. Highlights of the day included:
 
· Value Added Printing in Sheetfed and Web Offset – Solution for printers to survive, grow and prosper – Michael Nitsche and Josef Aumiller – manroland
· Mastering Value Added Printing in Sheetfed Packaging – Yuri Svirin and Gerry Schmidt – Sun Chemical
· Effect of paper and print quality for cost optimisation – Natalia Zabarchuk and Olga Soboleva – Sappi
· Value Added Printing in Sheetfed and Web Offset – Selection of printing blankets to increase profitability – Walter Drechsel – Trelleborg
· Paper – More than a Print Medium – Key challenges in the graphic industry and how to overcome them – Anke Böckmann – UPM
· How to survive difficult market conditions –  A presentation by guest speaker Mr Vladimir Kudryashov – CEO Univest Marketing (Director, Univest Printing)
 
According to seminar moderator Marina Fedotova, "The PrintCity seminar in Ukraine is another way to Europe for Ukrainian printers & publishers. Besides it's a great opportunity for them to share their experience between themselves and branch experts. Such meetings definitely should be held year by year and involve different segments of the printing industry."
 
Erik Ohls, UPM, commented on this Kiev event saying, "The seminar and the interactive panel discussion afterwards were a great way of "connecting" to customers. All in all, a very successful event."
 
Natalie Kharadzhieva, Marketing Direktor, ECS Print Holding confirmed, "At this first PrintCity event in Kiev, it was an opportunity for members of the Alliance to respond to the needs of the Ukrainian market.
 
She concluded, "The number of participants attending means that such a dialogue with our industry experts is something that the market wanted and responded well to."
 
John Dangelmaier, PrintCity Alliance President and host for the Kiev event summarised its success as follows, "Under the title Share the Experience and Master the Challenge our PrintCity members were able to share their 'Connection of Competence' knowledge of latest technical and process opportunities. Importantly, with the open, interactive discussions which lasted nearly three hours we were able to answer many questions of importance for the Ukrainian printers & publishers.   Based on the success of this first event in Kiev and the very positive attendee comments, we will certainly be continuing with more similar events, starting in 2010."