The BPIF has announced that it is to stage a one-day Finance and Investment Conference, entitled “The Challenge of Transformational Change”. The conference will focus on how change is affecting the print industry and what challenges and opportunities this could bring for companies and businesses in the sector.

The conference will be held on 22 March at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. The keynote speaker for the event will be Futurologist and author, Dr James Bellini.

Dr Bellini will focus on “Tomorrow’s company – the challenge for managers”, where he will discuss what the future holds for UK companies; how long-term predictions are made and whether they can be trusted. He comments, “The coming decade will see the biggest shift in global economic realities since the Industrial Revolution and the rules of business are changing fundamentally.  Managers need to ask themselves: 'Have we embraced these new realities; is our company 'futureproof'?'

The conference will seek to provide business owners and suppliers with answers as to how they can make the most of the opportunities provided by the current economic transformation the industry is going through, whilst at the same time minimising the risks these opportunities may present.

The results of a new BPIF survey on capital investment for 2011 will also be presented at the event by Andrew Brown, BPIF’s Director of Corporate Affairs. The survey will cover capital investment plans and priorities; nature of investment proposed; investment processes adapted; key strength of successful companies going forward and sources of funding.

Case studies will be provided by:

- Richard Barfield, Chief Financial Officer with Bezier, will discuss the topic of transformational change.

- Chris Poll, Chief Executive with Credit Pal, will discuss “Doing Business Together, focusing on the impact of Lombard’s pull-out from print industry financing.

- Charles Jarrold, Business Development Director with St Ives Plc, will tackle “Cost Leadership”, including how to minimize costs, R&D and investment.

- Anthony Thirlby, Managing Director of ESP Colour, will focus on the subject of “Achieving top line growth – but not at any price”, highlighting how to stay ahead of the competition and the challenge of overcoming a downward commodity pricing sector and shrinking sector.

- Edward Ryder, Managing Director of Biskit, whose subject is “Turn customer services into a sales hungry tiger”, will also provide an examination of the customer’s perspective, what inspires loyalty and what reduces it.

- James Buffoni, Head of Marketing with Ryedale Group, will discuss “Differentiating your business with cutting-edge technologies”. James will show how advanced technologies can help a business to add significant value to a customer’s printed products and campaigns.

Supplier perspectives will be provided by: ROI Digital, Ricoh, KBA and RK Harrison.

The conference is open to BPIF members at a cost of £150.00 plus VAT for the first delegate and £75.00 plus VAT for additional delegates. Non-members will be charged £220.00 plus VAT and £110.00 plus VAT for additional delegates.