After my 14-August-2013 blog post, "Prince George's birth proves yet again: Nimble = Profitable" http://vicg8.blogspot.ca/2013/07/prince-georges-birth-proves-yet-again.html, I fielded numerous questions from printers via e-mail and social media on the detailed mechanics of how they can prepare their businesses for the next commercial windfall associated with a big local event.
It's hard to generalize about this topic, since the answers are often situational and depend largely on the type of event for which you are planning.
However, in case you're seeking more information, my feature "Olympian Printing" contains case studies describing how Metropolitan Fine Printers and Ampco Grafix positioned themselves strategically to provide printing for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
A PDF of the Olympics article is available at: https://www.box.net/shared/erx45bpunc
Additionally, for all greeting-card lovers in search of design novelties: my colleague at PrintAction, Trish
Witkowski of foldfactory.com, has uploaded a series of videos showing a
collection of 16 ingenious holiday-card ideas from all over the world. The more
exotic ones include a card that presents a slice of pumpkin pie and one that
can be assembled into a paper model truck.
http://www.printaction.com/News/20121211-holiday-cards.html
Further to my last post on "Seven reasons why you should enter the Canadian Printing Awards", today I want to throw in a special plug for submissions to my two favourite awards categories: Business Development and Environmental Printing.
I'm posting this shamelessly subjective promotion for three reasons: The first and most selfish one is that submissions to these categories often have wonderful stories attached, giving trade journalists like me who attend the awards ceremony plenty of interesting new material to write articles about in the next eleven months. (One example that comes immediately to mind is Symcor's award-winning intergenerational green initiatives that formed the basis for one of my columns for PrintAction.) https://www.box.net/s/egv1f8xq5f5fh2qqeqzx
The second reason is that, maybe because I often write about new trends in marketing communications, I have amassed a considerable following of social-media contacts in the marketing and advertising fields. These people in particular might be interested to learn that not only printers but also vendors can apply to such competitions in the Business Development Categories as Best Marketing Campaign.
The third reason is that, although some CPA categories only require you to submit your printed product, contact information, and a modest entry fee, submissions under my two favourite categories require applicants to record a little more detail. I'm not talking about volumes of paperwork, but typically at least a page or two.
For example, applications for Best Online Presence [from either printers or vendors] require you briefly to outline the scope, objectives, outstanding features, and results of your Web site(s), social media, or on-line storefront. Application forms for some Environmental Printing entries include a handy chart that helps you pinpoint your achievement(s) under various headings, such as certifications, energy, distribution management, facility engineering, health and safety, policy, pollution prevention, product development--you get the picture.
So although the application process isn't all that much more complicated for either the Business Development Categories or Environmental Printing Categories, if you haven't begun already, you'll probably need to get started on your application today or tomorrow (Thursday would definitely be pushing it) in order to submit it in time for the 5 p.m. deadline this Friday 2 November. http://www.printaction.com/CPA/entryforms.html
One final subjective note: please give serious additional thought to submitting an entry to the new category of Display Graphics (under the Quality Printing Categories), because none of us in the printing industry ever tires of admiring colourful eye candy--the bigger the better.
