1. What do you believe will be the greatest opportunities for printers to grow their businesses in 2008?
Printers need to stop thinking of themselves as printers and start thinking of themselves as a critical link in the marketing supply chain. The single biggest opportunity for most print service providers in the Fespa community is to emphasise their expertise in delivering creative solutions to the client's brief, and proving how that creativity, combined with production expertise, can deliver better, more results-orientated marketing campaigns.

2. What will be the greatest threat to your sector in 2008?
As is true in most industries, the biggest threats are also the biggest opportunities. For example, our recent Wide Survey research showed that many printers see electronic signage encroaching on wide-format print. But we see that as an opportunity for the visionary print service provider. If you offer the customer a solution to their problem, and forget about the underlying process, the customer will keep coming back and asking for more, and you'll build a stronger, more profitable business, with a more loyal customer base.

3. How can the industry raise its profile next year?
All print service providers have an opportunity in future to take their place alongside other marketing service providers and to stop being pigeon-holed as 'the guy who does our printing'. But printers need to communicate this value to clients and the market at large. They need to make sure they have the skills and expertise in-house to provide a more consultative approach to the client's brief. They need to make sure that their role is valued and adequately rewarded. And where profile-raising is concerned, they need to shout more loudly about the creativity and innovation they bring to the party.

4. What do you believe is the most under-recognised aspect in printing that is likely to become more important in 2008?
That print is part of a complex marketing mix, not an add-on. Print is not a process, it's a communications medium, and everyone in the marketing supply chain should think more laterally about how to exploit the unique advantages of print; its tactile quality, its vividness, its impact, its accessibility, its scope for innovation and personalisation. Day after day, we see breathtaking examples of how print can capture the consumer's attention, imagination and emotion.

5. What print sectors do you believe will experience the greatest innovation next year?
While technical innovation is relentless, especially in inkjet, in Fespa's community of wide-format print service providers, the real innovation is in the explosion of applications for digital wide-format. New applications are stretching every boundary for the most forward-thinking businesses, and this will one of be the defining themes of Fespa Digital 2008 in Geneva in April. Advances in digital output technology, inks and substrates mean that we can now print virtually anything, on virtually anything. The only real limitation is our imagination.

6. What should the print industry do when it gets back to work after the holidays?
Pat itself on the back, acknowledge what it does well, and then set itself some clear objectives and milestones for communicating its many strengths to the people who hold the printer's profitability in their hands – the brand and information owners and their marketeers.

7. If the government stepped in and did one thing to help the industry, what would you hope that would be?
Provide incentives, educational and training initiatives to young people to get them involved in this dynamic and creative industry. If our sector is to really seize the opportunities and become an integral element of the marketing supply chain, we need to engage energetic and enthusiastic young people who understand and use today's complex contemporary communication toolbox, and can help evolve great printers into excellent marketing service providers.

8. What will you do differently in 2008?
'Think differently' is Fespa's mantra as we move towards our second digital event in Geneva. Having run three blockbuster exhibitions over the last three years, we know that we can only top those by delivering a fresh and inspirational experience for visitors to our Geneva event in April. We'll make it easier to navigate, easier to interpret, easier to plan, and aim to offer new content and new formats for gathering information and inspiration.