Page 14 - FINAT Yearbook 2015

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The European Label Forum – the MUST attend event
Q4: (Where) do you see room for improvement in the functioning of FINAT as the international volunteer network? KW: Together with the national label associations we can still improve the recognition of our industry overall and find, and promote, better solutions e.g. in sustainability, best practice and legislation. We really need to encourage the next generation of label converters to participate in our volunteer committee system, rather than relying on the present committee members. It’s a challenge, but we ‘old hands’ can – and should – attest to the value of spending time in a volunteer role that delivers real business and industry insights.
business and industry information tools, but they need to be promoted and made more visible -- and desirable for outsiders.
Q5: The vision statement of FINAT for the coming years describes our association as “the unique source of relevant knowledge, information and connections key to the strategic success of international label businesses”. Let us for a moment imagine ourselves arriving at the European Label Forum in June 2020. What will our association have accomplished?
TH: A visionary question indeed... More local associations will be in the circle. Worldwide, there will be more connection via the L9 around international themes like the environment; data sources like FINAT RADAR; production methods; the consolidation of the FINAT Handbook; consultation with, and the birth of, smaller associations; and closer liaison within the European associations. Maybe committee meetings will be held via web conferences. FINAT will open its doors to a broader ‘label’ business platform. Self-adhesive will still be one of the best product decoration possibilities – but FINAT will embrace more parallel label technologies. The format of the Forum will be established, and it will be the annual highlight of information and knowledge exchange about product decoration as well as for industry networking.
KW: I would like to see the “European Label Forum” as a “must attend” event for everybody in the label industry, like Labelexpo, Interpack or Drupa.
The old stiffness and formality of FINAT have gone now, but somehow not everybody realises that...
- Thomas Hagmaier -
TH: The old stiffness and formality of FINAT have gone now, but somehow not everybody realises that -- especially the older leaders in the label business. I can only encourage them to attend the new Forum, and to become a ‘working part’ in the FINAT organisation by joining a committee as a volunteer. The doors are open. My personal desire is to persuade more converters to actively join the association – especially small- andmiddle-sizedlabelbusinesses. There’scertainlyroomfor their skills and experience in FINAT. The old excuse ‘my business is too small’ or ‘I don’t have time’ I’m afraid I can’t accept. Being active in FINAT even makes your daily business life easier to get through!
What I think FINAT needs to do here is to make it easier for potential converter members to see what they could get back from joining FINAT in terms of benefits – like networking, sharing experiences, evaluating the future for their own businesses. FINAT’s also the source of a lot of exceptional
Q6: FINAT was originally established in the late 1950s as a spin-off of the newly-emerging ‘pressure-sensitive’ technology that was licensed out in different European countries. Last year, after long discussions, FINAT embraced ‘adjacent’ narrow-web printing and converting technologies as part of its scope. What will this mean for the future direction of the association?
KW: Product decoration is key to selling a product, and various print technologies are now in use. Many of our members have already broadened their services in order to keep existing customers and enter new markets. Therefore it is, in my opinion, logical for all label associations to integrate these complementary technologies.
TH: Many of the European label associations have grown stronger in the last few years – and now themselves offer the services FINAT once provided. Some are even organised with their own offices and staff. That’s why FINAT genuinely has
FINAT YEARBOOK 2015 |