IFRA

WAN-IFRA: What WAN-IFRA can do better as a combined organisation that it could when it was two separate entities?

Pirker: I think when you have two such strong organisations as WAN and IFRA, they can do a lot better when they combine their forces. They have very different strengths – they always did – and now they can combine them as one. With such big profiles, it brings a lot to the customers – for members but also for the supplier industry.

WAN-IFRA: How should we gauge the success of the merger and of WAN-IFRA as a combined organisation?

Pirker: The main measure in my view is the satisfaction of the members, and the supplier industry; both are our focus now which is certainly new for the WAN culture. We will see how it develops and how the members see our development and the services we are going to provide - how they feel about the new offers, the new seminars, congresses, expo and so on.

WAN-IFRA: At the opening ceremony you mentioned the double crisis – both of the media and the general economy. What do you expect people to see at the show itself to help them through these times?

Pirker: This morning I saw that a lot of providers and suppliers are offering both worlds; digital and print. Our main focus is to say, look it’s not just migration from print to digital but about both on the digital world and the analogue world. Analogue may be the old world in some ways but as I saw visiting the Ferag booth even this ‘old’ world has a lot of new creative effort [going on] and I’m sure that we will be successful in our analogue business as well.