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FESPA AUSTRALIA CONFERENCE 2024: BECOMING A FUTURE-READY INDUSTRY
2024 FESPA Australia Conference: Becoming a future-ready industry
The FESPA Australia Annual Conference delivered thought-provoking sessions to a record number of attendees who gathered under the theme: Transform, Inspire, Lead.
Now in its third year, the FESPA Australia Annual Conference has become a key event in the print and signage industry calendar, dedicated to thought leadership and networking opportunities.
Recently held at the Shangri-La in Sydney, Nigel Davies, president of FESPA Australia, told delegates in his opening address that this year’s conference was centred on knowledge sharing and preparing both businesses and industry for the future.
“The mission of FESPA is to connect, inspire, and support,” Davies said.
“[FESPA’s] global connections provide us with an opportunity to learn first hand about others’ unique experiences, gain fresh perspectives, and foster new ideas.
“In my mind, the work of associations and the networks that they nurture, develop, and support is crucial. It’s clear that individual companies alone will not overcome the challenges we face as an industry. Issues like sustainability demand coordinated action, and it’s only through the collective efforts of passionate individuals working towards a common goal that we can make significant progress.
“We’re heading towards a cliff’s edge on some of the issues that our industry is facing, and sticking our heads in the sand won’t help. For this reason, the FESPA Australia conference will always bring you perspectives on topics such as sustainability, balanced with practical business issues such as succession, sales, and technology.”
Forward thinking
The conference kicked off with keynote speaker Gus Balbontin, a futurist whose dynamic presentation focussed on encouraging innovation and driving change. This was followed by an interactive leadership session facilitated by Balbontin.
Throughout the conference, delegates participated in panel discussions on various topics facilitated by industry experts including succession planning, adapting selling strategies to changed buyer behaviour, and the increasing importance of mandatory climate reporting.
Business adviser Andrew Ash led the first panel session on succession planning strategies. Ash was joined by father and son team Stephen and Daniel Lamont from Townsville-based Lamont Print and Signs, as well as Nigel Spicer, general manager of Cactus Imaging, and Nigel Davies, FESPA president and CEO of M-Power Software.
“$3.5 trillion is the amount of wealth that is due to be transferred between generations over the next 20 years in Australia. It’s a huge number, and it’s a huge opportunity as well,” Ash told attendees.
“Forty per cent of businesses successfully transition from the first generation to the second. Only 13 per cent transition to the third generation, and three per cent to the fourth generation.”
According to Ash, business owners that are successful with their transition start with the end in mind.
“Transitioning a business between family members is hard, but I see it as an opportunity. One in four business owners actively considered succession as part of their planning. If you take the time to plan, you’re going to be ahead of the other 75 per cent of business owners,” he said.
“Secondly, they prepare early. And thirdly, business owners that are successful with their succession strategy know the value of communication and culture. It’s great to have a vision for the future, but if your family do not know what your plan is, the chances of the business succeeding diminish.”
Spicer agreed communication is key during an ownership transition.
“One of things that I am most proud of is that we still have most of the team with us from the time that we changed [ownership]. Those that aren’t with us are still in the industry, which is incredibly rewarding for us to see,” he said.
“At the time of the change of ownership, communication with the team explaining what was happening and reassuring them that they were a part of a team that was going to move forward with us was really important.”
Stephen Lamont said culture is the driving force behind the Townsville-based business’ succession plan.
“Succession planning was a reaction for us initially, but it is now part of what we do,” he said.
“We’re currently developing our company culture to ensure that it is so strong that regardless of whether I’m there or Daniel is there, it doesn’t matter – it’s the culture that is going to lead our business.
“We have definitive goals for our leadership team in terms of what they do within the business and what we need them to be. Our goal now is to make sure staff know and understand our vision for the future.”
Daniel Lamont said succession is discussed weekly.
“Just like we talk about money and stock in our weekly meetings, we talk about what we’re doing with our succession plan,” he said.
Davies added, “The day you start the business, think about getting out of it. You need to pressure test your business all the time to see what it is going to be like without you”.
Innovation and collaboration
Another engaging session was on effective selling principles and how businesses are adapting to today’s customers.
The panel, hosted by Troy Cavanagh, sales director of ImageBox Group, included Mary Leishman, brand director of DRK LBL, Andy Fryer director of Easy Signs, and Keith Ferrel, co-founder and general manager of operations from Cactus Imaging.
While the sales environment has changed dramatically over the last five to 10 years, with access to information more readily available, and the decision-making process more complex, Ferrel believes the principles of selling haven’t changed.
“The way you sell, how you go about it, and the way you gather information might have changed in recent years, but the principle of sales – preparation, perseverance, getting your facts right, and having the right product to sell – haven’t. Social media has made a difference to how information is gathered, but I think face-to-face selling is still the ultimate, if you can do it,” Ferrel said.
Leishman spoke of the importance of collaborating with clients.
“In sales, you can take two paths – you’re doing it to make the sale, or you’re doing it to solve a problem. Sometimes solving the problem doesn’t mean making the biggest sale you can possibly make in that moment, but it will pay off in the long run by having a client that you build trust,” Leishman said.
“I don’t think there’s any new tactic or skill that you can learn and be instantly good at sales. It’s more how you deliver the communication that has changed and how you use your resources.
“Recently, we’ve been trying to encourage more face-to-face selling. We’re doing a lot more where we are actively going to [customers] in their space because we’ve found that we can find out more about who they are, what their problems are, and how we solve them by being in their world. We’ve also recently found success in going to our suppliers’ showrooms and meeting our clients there.”
Fryer said the company has a digital first approach when it comes to building trust with customers.
“We employ around 170 people in Sydney and none of them are in sales. We purely sell through our website, so it’s all about online marketing for us. How we build the trust – that would generally be built by having sales people – is digitally. Therefore, for us, it’s about customer reviews, videos, and photos to show our customers our scale, our equipment, and our capabilities,” Fryer said.
The panellists agreed on the importance of continuous sales training and product education.
“Perseverance, product knowledge, and preparation are all qualities of a good salesperson,” said Ferrel.
“Understanding how our technology works and understanding the entire process is important so that when our salespeople are in front of a client, they are armed with as much knowledge as possible.”
Leishman explained: “It’s important for salespeople to know they’re a puzzle piece that’s part of a bigger picture, and that they can really grow in their own success by learning from the team around them.
“Our salespeople are representing us –they’re holding the microphone so to speak – and we want to make sure they’re able to convey the message of why we’re doing what we’re doing, and that comes down to training.
“Salespeople can learn from other departments, which will strengthen their skills.”
Leishman said it is important for leaders to tailor their training of salespeople based what on what the individuals’ strengths are.
“Sometimes you need to be flexible in your leadership to help that salesperson achieve their highest potential,” he said.
Sustainability was also on the agenda, with a discussion on mandatory climate reporting requirements with David Walton, CEO of Omnigraphics/MMT Print, and Olivia Tyler, chief people and sustainability officer at IVE Group.
Dr. Toby Ford concluded the day by sharing practical and actionable strategies for managing stress and achieving worklife integration.
Closing the conference, which achieved record attendance, Davies said months of preparation went into selecting topics, content, and speakers.
“We are proud to have delivered an interactive and vibrant conference exploring key industry issues. I am sure everyone who attended took away something to improve their business and personal life – I certainly did.”
Event sponsors included: Diamond sponsor Orafol; Gold sponsors Durst Oceania and Visual Connections; Silver sponsors Cactus Imaging, IVE Group, and Hexis; and Bronze sponsors, Pozitive, Ball & Doggett, HVG Graphics Media, Kissel & Wolf, and Mimaki Australia.
FESPA Australia welcomes next generation of leaders
Justin Kirkland, account manager at Fujifilm Australia, was voted the 2024 FESPA Future Leader, following an intensive two-day Future Leaders workshop.
Preceding the FESPA Australia Annual conference, the FESPA Future Leaders Program is a professional and personal development program to identify and develop emerging leadership talent.
Now in its third year, the program further develops the leadership skills of 12 experienced industry professionals in a two-day intensive workshop facilitated by Carl Harman. To date, the program has had 36 potential leaders undertake its programme. Lisa Michalanney, co-owner of Signage World in Adelaide received the second place nomination. Both Kirkland and Michalanney will receive subsidised trips to FESPA in Berlin in May 2025.
“The Future Leaders program is one of FESPA Australia’s greatest achievements,” Davies told attendees of the FESPA Australia Annual conference.
“We have three objectives with this program. Our first is to develop the participants’ leadership skills using world-class coaching techniques normally accessible to leading executives.
“The second is to seed networking and relationships between diverse leaders here and internationally. The last is to give the participants a deeper understanding of our industry and the opportunity to contribute to the debate on key issues facing our industry.”
Delegates for this year’s program included: Wayne Costain from DRK LBL, Anna Di Giantomasso from IVE Group, Justin Kirkland from Fujifilm, Mary Kung from Imagebox Group, Christopher La Greca from IVE Group, Lisa Michalanney from Signage World, Will Potts from Tint Design, Rahul Reddy from IVE Group, Peter Smith from HVG Graphics Media, Ben Templeton from Durst Oceania, and Emily Watterson and Chris Williams from Cactus Imaging.
