Printers Day 2019 – a day to remember

Printers Day celebrations, held on 23rd February, 2019, at Park Central Hotel, Kaloor, Cochin, was truly a day to remember. The day marks the birthday of Johannes Gutenberg, the German credited with the development of printing technology as we know it today.

The welcome speech was given by R. Gopakumar, President, KMPA, who also presided over the event. Joseph Muttathottil, KMPA Past President spoke about the significance of Printers Day. KMPA has been regularly conducting Printers Day celebrations over the years and the occasion has been used to identify and honour a senior printer who has seen the industry evolve over the decades. This year was no different and veteran printer P.M. John (Proprietor of Printocraft, Fort Kochi) was honoured at the function for his contribution in the field of printing.

1. Venugopal, Co-ordinator, KMPA, took the honour of introducing the chief guest, Hon’ble Justice V.G. Arun, Judge, High Court of Kerala. The event started off with a floral tribute paid to the martyrs of Pulwama. The dignitaries on the dais and all delegates presented floral tributes to the accompaniment of ‘Vande Mataram’. The ceremony imparted a deep feeling of patriotism and respect to the jawans who laid down their lives for the motherland.

The inaugural speech from Hon. Justice V.G. Arun was evocative, throwing light on the need for maintaining quality standards in the printing industry.

Mr. John was at his evocative best as he explained the trajectory of his life and career. The audience chuckled as he jokingly mentioned how Ernakulam had taken away the name “Kochi”, which was actually the area that he is coming from. To add insult to injury, his area is now designated as West Kochi! The inspiring speech also had his experiences of how he got his first print order from Madura Coats and such interesting tit bits from his career.

There was also an interactive session on Print Pack India 2019: Signs & Trends, moderated by Treasurer Raju N. Kutty which had G. Venugopal (Sterling Print House), Shaji Manjooran (Brilliant Agencies), Sebastian Thomas (Print it), Deekshith K.S., (Technova) and Anoop Venugopal (Anaswara Offset) as participants. The session discussed varied topics related to the just concluded Printpack India. The views and perspectives of the participants on subjects like emerging markets, technologies of the future, and how to optimize investment returns were discussed. The session was well received.

Five new members were inducted during the function. The final vote of thanks was rendered by Biju Jose, General Secretary, KMPA. The function was followed by a dinner jointly hosted by Arun Kumar of Akhil Agencies and Saju P.J. of Shaah Creative Solutions.