11 July 2005

PrintWorks brings print to 3,500 more young people

Over 3,500 school children, students and teachers picked up materials from the PrintWorks stand at last week’s four-day Skill City event at London Docklands Excel. The winner of a mini iPod offered on the stand drawn out of 1,250 entries came from Tottenham. Runner up prizes of Cannon Goodie bags were won by visitors from Bethnal Green, Woolwich and Dagenham. Representatives from Polestar, PrintIT!, BPIF and Canon, who were present throughout the event, were encouraged at the response despite the London attacks on Thursday 7th, the second day of Skill City. “On Friday the first school to arrive, after the show had been open for half an hour, was from Russell Square. They were followed by a steady stream of visitors who were determined not to let the terrorist attacks get in the way of their future careers,” says BPIF Deputy Chief Executive Cicely Brown who helped on the stand on Friday. Based in the Skill City’s ‘Creative Community’, the PrintWorks stand was ideally placed between the Urban Music demonstration and the BBC stand which were the highlights of the show and guaranteed high levels of passing trade despite the low overall attendance. Although many visitors had no idea about the printing industry, there was real interest in the sector. Contrary to the perception that all young people are completely au fait with digital printing, children and adults were marvelling at the quality and speed of the large posters coming from the Canon wide format print demonstration. Teachers, children and parents were excited by the PrintIT! competition and, those whose teachers were not with them, promised to take the project back to their schools. Polestar’s Print Dynamics provided an invaluable insight into how the industry really works. However only one student successfully delivered all the newspapers in the BPIF’s PrintWorks game despite its popularity suggesting that some more training is definitely required! City & Guilds and UK Skills, alongside Canon, sponsored the Print Education & Training Forum PrintWorks stand, which also offered the three ‘Goodie Bag’ runners up prizes to the on-stand competition. PETF’s Richard Bloxam is excited about the impact that the stand had on telling young people about the industry: “There are 3,500 more young people out there who know at least something about the printing industry, which they didn’t last Tuesday. Through these and other initiatives, the message is getting across that print is an exciting industry with opportunity.”