Brian Swan on LinkedIn: Ditto Chris. Really enjoyed the evening and on behalf of myself and all at… (2024)

Latest 3E Advantage update from drupa – no. 1 for printing technologies Another really informative day for me at the show, with today being my first deliberately targeted day of speaking to various people (mainly from Europe), specifically around financing and what sort of finance solutions are prevalent in the various markets around the world.It was really good to see the financing industry being represented at Drupa as finance solutions are such a vital component of any sales process in the Print industry.However, what I found most interesting (and quite frustrating actually) is that a lot of financial solutions being provided by the European financiers who were represented are very ‘vanilla’ in their nature. Things that we view as standard in the ANZ market, such as structured repayment profiles which best suit the end customers cashflow requirements, are very rarely considered – they offer “60 or 72 months at $x – take it or leave it”. I won’t embarrass them by naming the people I spoke with here but lets just say they wouldn’t survive long in the ANZ market, and certainly not at 3E Advantage ! Come on people - you have to be better than that !!Anyway, whinge over and back to more positive and enjoyable matters.The day was capped off by an awesome ANZ get together which was organised by Print21, with Currie Group and Konica Minolta Australia being the main sponsors.The venue was the Frankenheim Brewery (where else!!) and was hosted by the irrepressible Wayne Robinson, who told one the best/worst (depending on your perspective) dad jokes ever !!I had some really excellent chats with old and new connections, with a little bit of business discussed but also fun stuff like (1) mutual acquaintances from my old town back in Scotland with Alan Bamford from Dataflow Business Systems in Perth (say hi to Beefy, Alan) (2) Dubai golfing trips and near divorces, as a result with Corey London from @specialtprint in Sydney and Luke Wilkinson from in Melbourne.It was also really great to spend good quality time with John Morley from eProductivity Software who are very well represented here at Drupa. John is someone who is as passionate about software financing as I am and his positivity is infectious.It feels like there were a lot of people from Melbourne there and I had a really good chat with John Ong from SMARTECH Business Systems who I have known for some time but never met face to face and that is the beauty of events like this.Thank you again to Print21 for a great event, and as a result of your great night I have lots of follow up to do when I get back to Sydney.Until tomorrow, Ch3Ers

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Latest update from drupa – no. 1 for printing technologies from the 3E Advantage viewpointAnother great day at this amazing show, and yesterday was my longest walking day - my feet are feeling it now !!I had the great pleasure of meeting up with Glenn Conyers who took time out of his schedule to give me a tour of the very impressive Fujifilm stand.Glenn is an industry veteran and his knowledge is widespread but he knows my main focus is finance and as such, when he talks ‘print language’ to me, he speaks in very easy to understand terminology, which I greatly appreciated.As we walked around the vast array of the Fujifilm products on show, I was reminded that one of the main themes of Drupa this year is sustainability. In that regard, I was very impressed with Fujifilm’s ‘Aquafuze’ ink technology which is now available on their Acuity Triton printer. Aquafuze combines the benefits of UV LED and water-based inkjet, it has low energy and low temperature drying, which ultimately delivers excellent print results whilst also maximising production efficiency – very impressive.I spent the latter part of the day in the company of my very good friends at Konica Minolta Australia and Konica Minolta New Zealand , who have looked after me amazingly well his week, and a huge shout out in particular to the ANZ contingent of Andrew co*cker Adam Todd Chris O'Hara Wade Marriner Darrell John and Elisabeth Mitchell.A very enjoyable dinner in the Alstadt (Old Town) on the banks of the Rhine was had with the Konica team and also Leon Wilson from Revolution Print whom I always enjoy catching up with – I promise to get to Ballarat one day soon Leon !!I’ve attached a couple of ‘show’ and ‘non-show’ photos, and on the last photo I can neither confirm or deny that the 7 empty beers on the table had anything to do with us !!Until tomorrow, Ch3Ers

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Day 2 at Drupa is a WrapAnother 4am start - apparently jet lag is still a thing, “especially for older people like you” as I was subtly informed by my much younger 3E Advantage colleague Craig (Birch) Birchall – thanks Birch !!drupa – no. 1 for printing technologies is still as huge as it was yesterday but the tip to bring comfortable shoes was a good one – thank you Eric Holtsmark and David Procter It was another intense day with many new conversations and learnings for me, not least a very good chat I had with Chris O'Hara from ‘across the ditch’. I have spoken to Chris a fair bit over the years but yesterday was the first time we’d met in person, and he gave me very good insights into the New Zealand Printing and Finance market, and how 3E Advantage can assist.I headed to the Drupa Cube in the middle of the day where there was a presentation on 'Driving Revenue Growth by Account-Based Sales and Marketing', hosted by the very impressive Robert Norum Robert has 30 years of experience in B2B Marketing and in that time he has seen it all. The presentation largely focused on Account Based Marketing (ABM), which Robert defined as “Treating individual accounts as a market in their own right”. The topic really struck a chord with me as a Sales leader and one of the clearest market research observations he has found was that it is extremely common for organisations to have “a lack of Sales and Marketing alignment”. Thinking about our company, we involve our Head of Marketing Chris Clifford in every Sales meeting and I believe we are pretty well aligned but the topic of ABM is one we will look at.The example of an ABM process Robert gave us, was spread over a 12 week period, (he did stress that the timelines could vary depending on each individual situation) and the 6 steps in the process were (1) Scoping your ABM Programme, (2) Account Insight, (3) Strategy and planning, (4) Account Messaging and GTM Plan, (5) Campaign Execution and (6) ROI and Measurement.Lots to consider and something I will be discussing with my Team when I get back to Sydney.The Day was capped by a sensational river boat cruise trip down the Rhine, to which I was invited by Plockmatic Group who were celebrating their 50 year anniversary. It was a beautiful way to end the day and was brilliantly hosted by all the folks at Plockmatic not least their global CEO Jan Marstorp On a personal level, myself and the ANZ connections were extremely well looked after by the always entertaining Chris Toll, although he and I do have very differing opinions on Borsch Soup – long story for another day.Until next time,Ch3Ers.

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Leon Wilson and his amazing Revolution Print business highlighted at the Konica booth at drupa – no. 1 for printing technologies Not bad global recognition for a Regional Victoria company !!Congrats mate from all at 3E Advantage

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Day 1 at drupa – no. 1 for printing technologies is a Wrap !What a day it was ! 3E Advantage Most people I met at the show mentioned they had jet lag (like me), but you wouldn’t have thought so as the high energy was palpable everywhere.The first thing that struck a newbie like me was the sheer scale of the show. That is immediately evident from the buzz at my hotel and the very reliable public transport which Dusseldorf provides, where everyone (and I mean everyone) is heading to/speaking about Drupa.It is great being back in Europe on business and all the accents I am hearing from all around the world adds to the feeling of how big the Print industry is. I love meeting new people and it is always funny explaining to people I have met for the first time, in my (still strong) Scottish accent, that I have been based in Sydney for the last 21 years!All the leading global vendors have amazing displays at Drupa and are proudly marketing their new products and solutions, and although I have not made it round the whole show yet, the engineering and technical capability on display is truly breathtaking.As well as walking the floor, marvelling at all the exhibits and bumping into various friends from Australia, the highlight of Day One for me was one of the Keynote addresses from the remarkable, Vicky Pryce. Professor Pryce has an extensive career in the financial market and is currently the Chief Economic Advisor for the Centre for Economics and Business Research in the UK. Professor Price had a lot of data and stats in her presentation and is clearly a very well read and highly intelligent person, but she explained her thinking in a very straight forward manner, which was appreciated by the audience at the Drupa Cube.Some of the key takeaways from her presentation for me, in no particular order were; (i) There is still some economic uncertainty around the globe, with elections in the coming 6 months in the EU, USA and UK, but that is very short term, and (2) Business and Consumer Confidence are actually showing signs of improving, (3) AI is the key to sustainability in many industries (including Print) (4) In Australia, the Gross Debt to GDP ratio is well under current ‘acceptable’ levels at circa 50%, which is good (Japan is at 250%), (5) Global Stock markets have rallied to record highs on interest rate cut expectations, and (6) despite all the global economic issues after the Global Financial Crisis and Covid, market resilience is definitely still there.I for one, walked out of Professor Pryce’s presentation much more buoyed by the future than I was when I walked in, one hour previously.Stay tuned for more feedback from the show.Ch3Ers,

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Great company with an awesome culture and leadership.Well worth a chat with Shawn Wigham MAICD if you are interested in the role.

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Looking forward to Drupa and I will be there from the opening day (28th May) until Tuesday 4th June.DM me if you are going to be there as I would be delighted to share 3Es latest offerings with you.Ch3Ers,

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