[Waclaw Mostowski]

Neil, you’re the CEO of FESPA. This is the first time when you’re organizing the personalization experience event. And I would like to know what’s the idea behind this event? Why did you decide to organize it?

[Neil Felton]

Because the way that we see it, we come from the digital printing side of things as well as the screen printing. But digital printing enables you to personalize everything. And what we haven’t necessarily talked about is a lot of our printers are looking at going on personalization journeys in which they can actually increase their profit margins and create a better connection and engagement with brands and their customers.

[Waclaw Mostowski]

Okay, so what’s your opinion? Like, why printing companies are afraid of, you know, embracing the personalization in their business?

[Neil Felton]

I think I can understand why. But the thing is, a lot of these companies already have digital printing already in built. So they have the variety of printing that they can do already with the technology they have. And it’s our job as FESPA to educate them about what they can do from a personalization perspective. And I think that’s what’s really key is that they have the ability and we want to try and give them the tools in which they can.

[Waclaw Mostowski]

Okay, and from your let’s say, personal point of view, what does personalization mean to you?

[Neil Felton]

That’s a great question. for the last three months. To me, personalization is something which actually affects me emotionally and is something which is is purely for me and I would be willing to pay extra for. And that can be a whole variety of things. The best example I can give you is that Callum, who works for us, he was it’s his birthday yesterday and we had one of his a T-shirt personalized we saying daddy’s birthday with the picture of his son. And what happened is that there was true emotion. You know, there were tears coming and everything. And that wouldn’t happen if you just gave him a T-shirt. But if you gave him a personalized T-shirt, you’ve got an emotional attachment to something. And I think that’s what’s so powerful about personalization. We have the community in which can do it, their forward thinking printers who can do things like this. And then, of course, you’ve got the emotion, the power of personalization, which I think is so strong.

[Waclaw Mostowski]

Okay, and the last question from my site. What do you think? What’s the future of the personalization in terms of the printing industry?

[Neil Felton]

The future is incredibly, it’s just so bright. I mean, if you think about it, every single printer that engages with FESPA, this member of the FESPA community can do a level of personalization. And I think the future is to make sure that they listen. They learn from people like yourselves and the experts like Richard Askam, you know, to say these are the sorts of things that they could do. And I think as a result, what you will see is there’ll be more and more printing done in a more personal manner, which will have a higher profit return and a higher satisfaction amongst all the customers. You add all those four things together. That’s an incredibly strong reason why personalization is a place where you should be if you’re a printer.

[Waclaw Mostowski]

I know that it was supposed to be about to be my last question, but one more. And what do you think? Do you have any ideas for the future event, for the future year of the for personalization experience event?

[Neil Felton]

More education. More engagement with brands, more exhibitors. This is just the start and we want to make this grow and explode and actually engage with the whole of our universe. We represent, as I said, seven national associations, 14,000 printers, another half a million printers engage with us in some other shape or form around the world. And to us, this is an opportunity and we think personalization is the future.