FESPA UK announces the continuation of The Next Generation project in 2024
Print Solutions Wide Format Solutions
After a busy year working hard to support the Next Generation initiative, FESPA UK will be starting 2024 off with a large event taking place on the 21 of February at Coventry Transport Museum.
FESPA UK’s Next Generation project has been successful in achieving its goals. Projects like these often play a crucial role in fostering innovation, collaboration, and the development of new talent within the industry.
The initiative started in January 2023 with two training days at Amari which looked at different vinyl materials and their applications as well as getting hands on and having a go vinyl wrapping. This was followed by a large event held at The British Motor Museum in Warwick which looked at different styles of networking and how they can be achieved, as well as an inspiring workshop from The Apprentice winner Mark Wright who talked about progressing within career roles and building a strong skillset, attended by over 45 young people within the industry.
Throughout the remainder of the year, FESPA UK organised three more localised events, including a workshop on social media and marketing in the print industry, as well as getting hands on with the latest printer technology, held at Liyu UK, a talk panel involving the Next Generation Committee on getting more young talent into the industry, and a day going head to head in teams, overseeing the design and production, build and sale of desk organisers, held at Zund UK. Throughout 2023, Next Generation events have welcomed over 100 people aged 18 to 30 within the print, graphics, and signage industry, allowing them to elevate their skills and network, ready for the future.
The organisation plans to go bigger and better in 2024, starting with a large scale event being held at Coventry Transport Museum on 21 February 2024. This event will welcome representatives from all areas of print, signage and graphics and offer key take away skills from workshops focusing on building sales and communication skills.
Alistaire Jama, managing director of Kennedy Ross will be providing close knit workshops at the
event, along with his team. The workshops will be in small groups and give delegates key insights and offer upskilling on sales and communication in two modules: ‘Ensuring your words, music and dance are aligned so your sales message lands correctly every time’, and ‘How to get on well with everyone you meet within the first seven seconds’– psychometric profiling. Both modules, will increase confidence in communicating clearly and help to build relationships quickly. All of which is based around the premise ‘people buy from people they like’. The workshop is designed for anyone who is customer facing, has challenges around communication, finds certain types of people difficult to sell to, wants to increase the quality and quantity of their conversations. This workshop works just as well in helping you manage your internal customers (people throughout your business) as well as external customers. It will remove your bias and finally explain why you like and dislike certain people when communicating and create a plan to ensure you maximise on every opportunity.
The rest of the year will offer training days in smaller groups, in various locations across the UK, focusing on a range of topics.
These events will be focused on educating young people, but some of the events will see a new concept for 2024 where the business owners can join their young team members and will be able to learn together and discuss key topics that effect the daily running of a business.
