Taking place between 20 and 22 September, its former president Graham Lowe, who is organising the event, said this year’s theme had emerged from the need for local authority print units to modernise.
The event, which began in its current form in 2002, acts as a networking event, a sponsored showcase, an awards ceremony and also as APCOM’s AGM. Around 75 to 100 delegates are expected to attend from 25 local authorities, a similar number from last year.
Lowe said: “A lot of APCOM members work in councils and most of our members tend to have in-plants, often in a local government environment in a basement, and one of the things we’re not particularly good at as print managers within that field is marketing what we do.
“Print has changed massively over the last five to 10 years. It has evolved quite substantially and we need to get out and say ‘Right these are the new things we can do' and market to our customers within our organisations about what we can offer.”
Workshops will include those on the need for in-house print units to market themselves and also on developing a marketing strategy, and will be hosted by high-level sponsors Ricoh, United Carlton and Tharstern. Other sponsors include Canon, Antalis, Konica Minolta and Duplo.
This year’s event will also see the return of the APCOM Awards, with categories including best finished product, best in-house production and best web design. The deadline for entries is 1 August and the awards will be on the night of 21 September.
Lowe said he wants the event to act as a support network for this “challenging” niche sector that is struggling to keep up with the “pace of change” in print.
“With local authorities we’ve seen a sea-change of moves away from traditional print technologies. The challenge for a lot of our members now is to embrace those technologies while keeping print relevant,” he said.
“Most local authorities out there employ lots of staff and the print unit is often something that perhaps is not promoted enough. This event will tackle or help tackle that.”
Previously known as the Association of In-Plant Managers (AIM), APCOM is intended for print and communication managers employed within the public sector. It draws its membership from local authorities, police authorities and other public bodies, such as emergency services and schools. It is run by volunteers and its current president is Leicestershire County Council's Michael Jacques.
