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I go big on vibes. 'Good Vibrations' as the Beach Boys once sang, if you are young enough to remember them! PacPrint, with Visual Impact and Labels & Packaging was full of them - and the data backs this up. Apart from returning to Sydney with Covid, it was all good and there was not enough time to see everyone I wanted to see. Here's my wrap-up from isolation and a little opinion from the heart.

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Konica Minolta Australia says long-time customer Revolution Print has expanded its industrial print solution with the PacPrint purchase of a Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 230 and the Grafisk Maskinfabrik (GM) DC350Nano label finisher. 

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The Out of Home (OOH) industry recorded an increase of 14.8% on net media revenue for Q2 2022, up from $217.3 million in Q2 2021 to $249.5 million. Digital OOH now accounts for 62.4% of net revenue.

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Michael Palladino, managing director of Sydney signage and fleet branding company Auto Artisan, won the final of the Hexis Wrap Battle at PacPrint in Melbourne last week. He wins a trip for two to Cairns.

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There were 480,000 job vacancies in Australia in May 2022, 58,000 more than in February 2022, and more than double the vacancies in pre-pandemic February 2020 (227,000), according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Manufacturing had 136% more job vacancies in May 2022 than in February 2020.

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Canada’s CADlink Technology Corp has developed of a range of print and signage software products including SignLab - for creating digitally printed, vinyl cut, and print/cut signs and graphics. 

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Xerox has acquired Go Inspire, a Leicester, UK-based print and digital marketing and communication services provider, to expand its global Digital Services business. Go Inspire has an annual turnover of £70 million. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

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It hasn't been audited yet and there are concerns about some visitors not having been 'scanned' but it looks like PacPrint attracted between 6,500 and 7,000 visitors over its 4 days. Certainly Friday felt very busy indeed and many New Zealanders showed up too.

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Well known and respected CEO of Onyx Graphics, Kevin Murphy, will retire in July - paving the way for Matt Crawford to step up internally as President and CEO. With 20 years already at Onyx Graphics, Crawford will ensure an ultra-smooth transition.

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Several stands had 'We're hiring' signs on their stands at PacPrint and generally there is a shortage of candidates. Leading industry recruiters JDA Printrecruit had endless enquiries from printers seeking applicants, Vivad had no less than five jobs advertised. Leading fit-out firm Major Media are looking for an Ops and Install person...the list goes on.

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New Zealand's Sign & Display Association (NZSDA) has opened an online gallery of all entries submitted to the NZ Sign & Display Awards 2022 to be presented in Queenstown this week (Friday 8 July).

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Four of the six Australian manufacturing sectors expanded in June according to Ai Group’s Performance of Manufacturing Index (Australian PMI), with the textiles, clothing, footwear (TCF), paper & printing products sector reporting the strongest result.

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The ACCC says more than $700 million was lost in investment scams in 2021 and another $227 million in payment redirection scams, while romance scams resulted in losses of $142 million. An astounding 357 million scam calls were blocked by a new Scam Calls Industry Code.

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Fujifilm says its eco-manufacturing site in Suzhou, China - which recycles multifunction printers - has become carbon neutral following the installation of hundreds of solar panels and a switch to renewable electricity.

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Global print giant HP says it’s building a “best-in-class experience” for the Printing United Expo in Las Vegas this October with a private show hall encompassing 21,000 square feet (1,950 square metres).

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With apologies to Queen from 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' If you are looking for a great, well-constructed laser cutter or engraver that won't break the budget, try Thunder Laser. The whole look and feel of the various models speaks robustness and quality, with motors and parts sourced globally from the best and assembled in China. At PacPrint, Glenn Traves and Mandy showed several models and existing users are singing the praises.

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Carbon8 from NSW, with five Gold and two Silver Awards , was the night’s biggest winner at the 39th National Print Awards hosted by the PVCA last night in Melbourne. The Lighthouse Group from NSW, Sunprint Queensland and Ball & Doggett in Victoria all won two Gold medals. Other gold winners were John Fisher Printing NSW; Jamesprint, Styleprint and Ellikon Fine Printers from Victoria; The Greenridge Group and dms CREATiVE from Queensland; CCL Label, Signageworld and Multi-Color Corporation Australia from SA; Percival Print & Packaging from WA; and Foot & Playstead from Tasmania. 

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The show rocks on and we will bring more news about it over next week but Wednesday evening was all about two special functions - the LIA precursing the announcement of Apprentice of the Year, introducing the finalists ahead of the announcement at the NPAs, and Currie Group putting a fine party on to celebrate its new branding and, well, just have a good time complete with band and floorshow. It's as if Covid never happened!

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In a shock announcement, Xerox Corporation said its vice chairman and chief executive officer John Visentin, 59, unexpectedly passed away yesterday due to complications from an ongoing illness. Steve Bandrowczak, Xerox’s president and chief operations officer has been  appointed Interim CEO.

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The lengthy Court case involving former Fuji Xerox MD Neil Whittaker, Finance Manager Devlin Bell and accounting firm EY has been adjourned until July 30th by new presiding Judge Feutrill. Recently appointed to the Federal Court, he is now handling the claims and cross-claims case.

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What a night of nights! Gold medal winners at Tuesday night’s HP-ASGA National Sign Awards included familiar names Kingman, Cunneen Signs and Grafico Group as well as first-time winners Zimmerman Industries, OMG!, Signhub, Neolite, Specialbuild, Signcraft, Signageworld and Signage Fleet. Donuts Anyone? by Liberty Signs in the Vehicle Wraps category won the People’s Choice award.