The project is coming to a close and the final conference will take place on 18th September in Brussels.

As a truly European project with activities in seven different countries, the final conference will give participants the chance to share and compare results while planning for the industry’s future. Workshops to discuss socially responsible change were held in these seven countries and included employers, workers and trade union officials. Around 200 participants from across Europe attended. The workshops aimed to put into action two documents produced by Intergraf, UNI Europa Graphical and national partners in 2010, which detail best practices in restructuring.

The conference in September will focus on change. To convince companies that reorganisation is needed and possible, real results will be presented by companies who have been through the process. These case studies will cover a number of different countries and deal with the challenges and opportunities involved while reorganising a company.

The industry will be discussed in a broader way through a number of different topics. One is barriers to change within companies. Another is the impact digital media has had on information retention and consumer behaviour. These topics will help companies shape effective business strategies balancing digital and paper products while organising their companies to ensure future success.

The conference will be the final chapter in this EU project, but will not be the end of the discussion. The structural issues in the printing industry remain and plans for the future will be presented at the conference to ensure the success of the industry. Undoubtedly, print has a bright future - this conference will help plot the way.

Draft agenda:

• Welcome and introduction
• Keynote speaker (European Commission)
• Setting the scene, project objectives and project in action,
• Case studies (three countries)
• Paper and Digital books: A complementary approach (Thierry Baccino, Professor of cognitive psychology, University of Paris)
• Barriers to change (Michiel Van Dijk, Turnaround Powerhouse)
• Panel discussion
• What next? – it’s in our own hands (Tim Wilkinson, Independent Change Consultant)
• Summary and future actions

About the project

In 2010 Intergraf and UNI Europa Graphical embarked on the project, Socially Responsible Restructuring of Printing Companies. This produced the study The Future of the printing industry: In our own hands and a step by step toolkit for companies to put the recommendations into action.

However, producing the documents is not enough – they must be put into practice. This led to funding from the European Commission to complete a follow-up project, Restructuring and Reorientation of Printing Companies. The project began in December 2011. Since then, seven countries (below) have held workshops with employers, employees and union representatives with the aim of using these documents practically and adapting printing companies to the current situation. The project will end with the final conference in September at the Thon City Centre Hotel, Brussels.

The partners of the project are:

• from the employers side: Intergraf, Apigraf (Portugal), UNIC (France), BVDM (Germany), KVGO (Netherlands), BPIF (UK), FEDPRINT (Hungary) and the MPIA (Malta).
• from the trade unions side: UNI Europa Graphical, Filpac CGT (France), FNV/KIEM (Netherlands), UNITE (UK), the General Workers’ Union (Malta) and the Hungarian Graphical Workers’ Union.