The Benelux Online Print Even · BOPE 23 · Managing Director · Jos Steutelings · VIGC

Gold to Luca School of Arts at the VIGC Hackathon 2020 · see the winners

In the VIGC Hackathon, the goal is to come up with an innovative solution or an innovative business model for the printing industry in a limited amount of time. The next step is a pitch where the participants (in this case 13 teams) present their prototypes to a professional jury, who will analyse and pick the winners. GOLD: Team Interaction Design - Luca School of Arts (Ghent, Belgium) Winning Project: SMILES The team of 5 students of the Luca School of Arts won the very first Graphic Arts Hackathon. “Smiles” uses the digital content from your smartphone for the content of a printed book. In this case, photos of smiling faces on the smartphone are detected via 'smile detection' software. Both the front camera picture from the person taking the snapshot as well as the actual back camera picture are being recorded and used in this smiles photobook. These memories are then collected in a personalized book along with all the content that made that person laugh. This winning 'Smiles' project with their clever idea also brought a smile on the faces of the jury, amongst our own Morten B. Reitoft from INKISH. A well-deserved victory! SILVER: Team “Print Quality Map” a team from Esko / AVT. Represented by Dries Vandenbussche (Director of Ideation – Software / ESKO) The second place is for Team “Print Quality Map”. This is a solution that visualises quality problems in print runs and visualizes this on a screen in a way like a weather / heat map shows, for example, storm or heat areas. These Print- “heat maps” are generated by cloud-based algorithms that use the data from the press inspection systems and communicate in real time. This advanced measuring software optimizes the colour stability in packaging printing on the actual printing press by detecting and predicting possible problems early on in the printing process. BRONZE: Team “Textiveroo” with members from DSN Artwork Systems, Conics and Hybrid Software. Represented by Dries Maerten – Owner Conics Third place goes to Textiveroo and is a solution for automatic text & barcode extraction. This artificial intelligence-driven software package ensures automatic conversion to other languages and the corresponding positioning of information on packaging. The files are analysed, and the relevant text is extracted from existing packaging artwork files. The benefit of this is the reusability of these elements for publications on online web portals or for streamlining the translation processes. *Next year’s VIGC graphic arts Hackathon is scheduled for October 11th and 12th 2021.

Best Virtual Event in 2020 · Jos Steuteling · Jan De Roeck · Dirk Deroo · Toon Van Rossum

Technology development in the graphics arts sector is in full expansion. Smart factory, Print Industrie 4.0 focuses on digital technologies that stimulate the inter-connectivity between printing companies, promote and bring them together with “strategic” partners. Classic models that acted as intermediaries between supply and demand, buyers and sellers, are being replaced by scenarios of transparent networked digital technology. The result: Suppliers, producers and consumers find each other (to a large extent) automatically. Business processes, services, product offering and communication will also become transparent and interactive in equal measure. What does this mean in concrete terms for the graphics industry in the Benelux and in Europe? INTERVIEW with some of the speakers at the VIGC congress 2020 Jan De Roeck (Marketing Director ESKO) Dirk Deroo ( Founder & CEO Dataline solutions) Toon Van Rossum ( Product Manager Enfocus) Jos Steutelings ( Managing Director VIGC ) *Next year’s VIGC CONGRESS is scheduled for October 14th 2021. --- NL: De technologieontwikkeling in de grafische sector is in volle expansie. Smart factory, Print Industrie 4.0 legt de focus op digitale technologieën die de inter-connectiviteit van grafische bedrijven onderling, en die met “strategische” partners bevorderen en samenbrengen. Klassieke modellen die fungeerden als intermediair tussen vraag en aanbod, kopers en verkopers, worden vervangen door scenario’s van transparant genetwerkte digitale technologie. Het resultaat: Leveranciers, producenten en consumenten vinden elkaar (voor een groot deel) automatisch. Bedrijfsprocessen, diensten, productaanbod en communicatie worden in gelijke mate ook transparant en interactief. Wat betekent dit nu concreet voor de grafische industrie in de Benelux en in Europa? INTERVIEW met enkele sprekers van het VIGC congres 2020 Jan De Roeck (Marketing Director ESKO) Dirk Deroo ( Founder & CEO Dataline solutions) Toon Van Rossum ( Product Manager Enfocus) Jos Steutelings ( Managing Director VIGC ) * Het VIGC-CONGRES van volgend jaar staat gepland op 14 oktober 2021.

How Public Procurement is done in Antwerpen · Joris Heirbaut · Director Media & Communication

Public Procurement is complicated and tedious, and many printers simply have given up on selling to public companies and organizations. Things are not always easy and here is an insight into how Public Procurement is seen from the buyer's side and how the city of Antwerpen has streamlined their buying process. Here Director of Media & Communication Joris Heirbaut presents the route from then to now - enjoy!

Endless Branding & Endless Possibilities · Peter Janssen · CEO, Endless Branding, The Netherlands

Peter Janssen is the CEO of Endless Branding from Beek, The Netherlands - and one of the interesting things Peter Janssen emphasize in his speech from Benelux Online Print Event 18 in Brussels is that we "pretty much produce the same things we have always done, however, the way we do it has changed a lot"... This is interesting since this is what a lot of printers experience and some are successful others are still struggling. Listen and learn!