Foundation of FTA Explores Flexo’s Global Gateway

One thing was certain—flexographic printing, as the Forum theme denoted, is “Crossing Borders,” and Forum 2007 was the global gateway to success. The event was chaired by David Nunez, Great Lakes Packaging. Dan Dietrich, Schawk, Inc., served as vice chair.

Keynote speaker David A. Schawk, Schawk Inc., addressed globalization and the Asian marketplace. “Be where the opportunity is!” Any company that wants to grow cannot ignore China and India, he asserted. There is much diversity within the 1.3 billion and 1 billion person populations of those countries alone, and as such, “Visual clues that consumers respond to vary in each region.” This leaves uncounted opportunities for short runs and fast turnarounds—the very mantra of flexographic printing. Debbra A.K. Johnson and John McCooey of DuPont, two of three individuals who joined Schawk at center stage, recommended that flexographers looking to expand beyond their borders embrace the five Cs—complexity, communication, competition, collaboration, and corporate social responsibility (a.k.a. sustainability).