FESPA, Surrey, UK, staged a global general assembly last month in Bratislava, Slovakia. The three-day event drew representatives from 24 of its 27 national associations. The representatives were joined by delegates from FESPA’s associate members in Australia, China, India, and Thailand.

The 2006 FESPA General Assembly, hosted by the Slovakian screen-printing association Siet’otla?ov? zväz SR, focused on the future development of FESPA and featured brainstorming sessions based on FESPA’s objectives as a not-for-profit umbrella organization. The objectives include educating, sharing knowledge and information, promoting best practices, and fostering more rewarding relationships between the 7000 companies that are members of its national associations. 

Delegates at the convention also were updated on upcoming FESPA exhibitions, which include FESPA, FESPA World Expo India, FESPA Digital 2008, and FESPA Asia Pacific. The organization says that based on the success of its growing exhibitions portfolio, FESPA has been able to allocate further funding to FESPA projects for implementation via the national associations in 2007. FESPA says a total of 66 projects have been submitted for consideration and 47 of the projects have been completed or instigated since its Projects Committee began its work in 2006. Through these projects, FESPA has invested more than €250,000 in the development of the European screen- and digital printing industries.

FESPA says its 2007 conferences will aim to provide an informative and educational experience for delegates, involving internationally renowned speakers from the screen- and digital printing communities, including vendors, academics, consultants, and printers. The conferences will be open to non-members of FESPA associations. Members will receive a discount on delegate fees.

The program is scheduled to begin in the spring with three conferences serving the Iberian market, in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon, focusing on the future of the graphics industry. FESPA will publish a schedule of its conferences early in 2007 and may take particularly successful conferences to the road to extend their reach to a wide geographical audience.

“The response of our associations and their members to the educational initiatives we have funded to date has been inspiring, and feedback to the conference sessions that ran alongside FESPA Digital was exceptionally positive,” says Chris Smith, FESPA projects manager. “However, we recognize that conference at major exhibition can only reach a limited audience, and we cannot realistically take into account the characteristics of particular niche markets or regions. By working in close partnership with our national associations to devise a more tailored conference program, we aim to build on the general content we are delivering by means of our event-led conferences, while making absolutely sure that FESPA is deploying its project funds appropriately to meet local and market-specific educational needs.” FESPA is located at 7a West St., Reigate, Surrey RH2 9BL, United Kingdom, 44-1737-240788, fax: 44-1737-2400770, e-mail: info@fespa.com, Web: www.fespa.com.