Robert McClements retires from BPIF after 25 years

Founder and curator of the Creative Digital Industries’ (CDI’s) Visual Media Conference, McClements has also been a stalwart advocate of the Yorkshire print trade throughout his three decades in the print industry.

Stepping away from BPIF duties, McClements will now focus on his non-executive director roles and an upcoming applied research project on artificial intelligence (AI) at Bradford University’s business school.

Revealing his departure at the BPIF annual general meeting in December, McClements joked that his career was moving “from ey up to AI.”

Speaking to Printweek, he said that after 25 years with the BPIF – which he joined in 1998 as a member when managing director of John Bentley Printing – it was time for change.

“I just needed to do something fresh,” McClements said.

“I’ve always enjoyed taking on new challenges, and I’ve become increasingly interested in AI through the work I was doing with the Visual Media Conference, looking at some really cutting-edge technologies that can be applied both in print and more generally.

“I approached Bradford University, which is becoming a leader in that area of research, with ideas for projects – applied, not academic research – and the the timing just felt right.”

McClements founded the Visual Media Conference in 2013, carrying it through to its tenth anniversary at Leeds’ Rose Bowl in April 2023.

The event was designed from the start to bring printers in closer contact with the designers and marketers that were buying, designing and influencing their printed products.

“My mantra to begin with was: printers need to know what complements print, and what competes with print.

“It was a bit of a Trojan horse really, to create an event where it would be sufficiently attractive [to designers and buyers] to include print in marketing communications.”

The event quickly grew: from first origins as 40 people having coffee, the conference grew to a record attendance of 650 during its online appearance in the pandemic, and in its Drupa-sponsored 2023 return featured guest speakers from high-profile brands like Coca-Cola and Tony’s Chocolonely.

McClements’ advocacy for Yorkshire print has also been a defining feature of his career. Taking up the helm of the BPIF’s Print Yorkshire at its launch in 2005, he liaised with government regional funding agencies to support Yorkshire and Humber print firms, organised as a ‘cluster’ of industry. 

He then recruited Victor Watson – former chairman of Monopoly manufacturer Waddingtons – as president for Print Yorkshire, which later became CDI Print Yorkshire.

“I invented the job, and I finished it with him: I wanted a figurehead, and Victor was such an icon in the industry. He had been president of the BPIF, president of the The Printing Charity, president of the Chamber of Commerce. 

“If you went to an event, it took half an hour to walk across the room, because everybody wanted to talk to him. Between us, we made such a big impact – it was amazing.”

The BPIF has not yet announced a successor as president of the CDI.

Credit: Printweek.com