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FESPA Projects Update |
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At the end of 2004, FESPA decided to reinvest surplus revenues from its show into projects to support the industry. These projects are proposed and managed by our Member Associations. Since that time, over 175 projects have been considered with 130 having been approved. Projects can cover any activity provided they meet the objectives and criteria established by the FESPA Board and as such, projects approved have encompassed such activities as:
n conferences and seminars;
n surveys;
n booklets and publications;
n recruitment events;
n education and training activities of which e-learning in screen printing is perhaps the most widely known;
n production of environmental guides (Planet friendly);
n website and database support;
n translations of articles (mainly technical)
n workshops.
Other FESPA initiatives have included:
n Sensations; European Terms and Conditions of business (currently being checked and translated by Member Associations); An expansion of the dictionary of technical terms into 10 languages (now available on this website); Guidance to members on Wee and RoHS and Reach.
 During this period, over €750,000 has been approved for such projects and, in addition, with shows now being organised outside of Europe (India and Thailand), we are able to help the printers in those countries as surplus revenues are reinvested in the country where the show takes place through the local Association. Much of the material produced or used during these activities are accessible in the FESPA Academy.
Let us provide alittle more about some of these supported projects.
FESPA sponsored a conference in Thailand just before Christmas which was attended by about 200 members of the Thai Association. A packed programme had been arranged with a small exhibition running throughout the day. Marcus Timson and myself (Chris) attended from FESPA and both of us were very impressed with the organisation of the seminar as well as the fabulous facilities of the BITEC centre which is where FESPA Asia Pacific is due to be held in November. We were made most welcome and treated to wonderful Thai hospitality throughout our stay, but the highlight perhaps was the awards dinner where winners of the annual Thai screen printing awards received their trophys. Both Marcus and myself were honoured to be asked to present gold awards to two of the winners and be able to participate in such a splendid event. A more detailed report of our visit will be available in the March issue of FESPA World.
E-learning will soon be available in 10 languages with the addition of Chinese and Thai courses. Interest is beginning to pick up in all languages as the opportunity for formal training is diminishing everywhere. This is due to the loss of so many colleges and learning establishments throughout Europe so if you want your staff to adopt best practice in screen printing and save you from considerable waste of both materials and inks, not to mention workers time and most important of all MONEY, you should seriously consider enrolling one or two of them on the course and see what they say. Some companies have enrolled all their staff on the course and have seen the many benefits accruing. In addition they have a more competent and professional workforce.
FESPA achieved a first at the end of last year by supporting The Adriactic Print Forum - an event organised by our Slovenian Association . The event was a two day seminar which took place in Ljubliana, Slovenia where the main speaker was Nicholas Hellmuth from Flaar. The event was simultaneously webcast live to a number of universities in Europe and also to China where an audience was also assembled. FESPA opened the seminar from our Reigate office and a presentation on Sensations was made from London both contributions being live. In addition many of the lectures were filmed so members of Associations will soon be able to view many of the lectures in the Academy area of this website.
Also in October we held our third Czech/Slovak seminar which attracted a record number of participants from 6 countries. A local tv crew came and filmed part of the proceedings and a three minute clip was shown on local Slovakian television. You can see this clip on this website and a more detailed report will also be available in the members area of the Academy fairly soon.
At our last projects committee meeting (16th January) we approved a few more projects as follows: Baltic States – Approval to develop a website in four languages (Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and English) as well as support to translate the dictionary of terms into the three Baltic languages.
Italy – development of a new website
Norway – Sponsoring of a printing project for students which is being held in conjunction with the opening of the new opera house in Oslo.
We also agreed in principle to support a number of other initiatives pending further information being submitted or requiring the approval of the FESPA Board. Some of these have now been approved by the FESPA Board and these are:
China - A practical special effects printing event on May 9th in Hangzhou (about 1.5 hours from Shanghai) which will be attended by around 150 printers. The object of this event is to explain how to achieve some of the special effects that were featured in the Sensations book. More information will soon be available through CSGIA (www.csgia.org)
In Australia we will be supporting the production of a commemorative book celebrating the 50th Anniversary of SGIAA. The book will show the development and growth of screen printing in Australia and is bound to be a worthwhile memento for our Australian friends.
Support was also given in principle to a colour standardisation project in Belgium (to be co-ordinated by Febelgra) but currently we are examining the best way to achieve this. We are aware that the Ghent Workgroup and FOGRA are both involved in this work so we want to ensure that the FESPA project will not conflict with these other activities.
At the last Projects Committee meeting held in Geneva, we have supported a 4th Czech/Slovak seminar in October, the establishment of an Australian Pavilion at the FESPA Asia Pacific show in November, translation of FESPA World articles for the Finnish Association magazine, a new website for Norwegian and Italian Associations, the preparation of a new members brochure for the Portuguese Association (Apigraf) and two projects for AEDES (Spain) - the first a Sensations project directed at print buyers the second being a textile colour management technical event. A number of other projects are to be referred to the FESPA Board which meets in June.
The next Projects Committee meeting is in July.
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FESPA SENSATIONS
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