Association Update – 2024 Looks Promising
Being our last informative e-news for 2023, we highlight some of the great achievements of this year and look forward to a new year and new beginnings for 2024. Our return on events, especially the industry Sign + Print Expo was a huge success for both exhibitors and visitors, there definitely was a positive vibe during the Expo and on floor, overall the 2 1/2 half days were received well throughout the industry. Collaborating with Print NZ also brought more diversity to the Expo showcase and visitors alike and we look forward to developing this partnership for the next Expo in 2026, Auckland. Equally, the NZ Sign Display Awards brought many new faces to the event and entries, it was exciting to see the creative talent rising through our next generation of sign makers. The creativity and innovation shown in some of the award-winning entries just demonstrated how rapidly the industry is growing with technology.
Regional Meetings made a return this year and were exceptionally successful throughout the main city centers, which confirmed to us that they must continue and that our members value these meetings for either information gathering or connections with like-minded signees. A schedule will be released early next year of the dates throughout the country. Face-to-face visits have also taken place in some regions, and always great to get feedback from the smaller towns and better understand their needs. Visits have stopped for the year, however, will gain momentum again in February next year.
Looking forward to 2024 with a fresh approach, led by both our new lady Mikayla Hopkins, Melissa Coutts – Secretary and Shea Goom – President (Wise Studios Wellington), supported by a newly formed board Logan Sutton – Vice President (Future Grafix New Plymouth), Andy Lowe – Immediate Past President, Leanne Freeman – Advisory (Sign FX Auckland), Scott Walklin – Advisory (Sign Network Christchurch) and Clinton Potter – Advisory (Red Star Signs Hamilton). This team of go-getters will certainly be driving a new direction for the Association and its members.
A couple of new initiative for 2024 is to give our website a refresh – making it more user-friendly for our visitors and members and implementing new add-ons that will benefit and streamline our processes and our members’ time. We will also be developing an HR Platform and benefits for our members to take advantage of when the time is needed and will cover all aspects of Human Resource Services. Publishing interesting and innovative stories of our industry is also on our radar and more will be released about this project in the new year.
Our 59th Sign Makers Conference will be held in Napier, 13-15 June. The theme chosen by our board is very fitting for our approach for 2024 – Engage to Empower. We want to focus on what it takes to convert a vision or a strategy into actions and how it can be executed by empowering and motivating your team. If you lead your team to believe in your passions it becomes contagious, and they will commit! Engage to Empower – it takes courage and guts!