中文Calli McCool, national sales manager at MMT Print, has had her appointment as Patron of Women in Print Queensland officially validated by members in a Special General Meeting, confirming a role she has been undertaking since May. The formal endorsement matters because it converts an acting appointment into a mandate, giving McCool the standing to lead the organization’s Queensland program through a busy second half of the year.
She will host her first Brisbane Print and Prosecco next Thursday, 8 October, kicking off Women in Print’s 2026 Print and Prosecco series. She will also host the Brisbane Leadership Dinner on 29 October, as part of the Executive Leadership program taking place in Brisbane at the end of October. Those two events anchor the Queensland calendar and give the community a regular, low-barrier reason to gather in person at a time when much industry networking has migrated online and lost its informal texture.
McCool has been undertaking activities as Queensland Patron since May. Rita Karagiannis, deputy chair of Women in Print and account director at Fujifilm Data Management Solutions, said: “Calli has already made a valuable contribution as Queensland Patron since May, and we are delighted to formally confirm her appointment today. She has quickly become a valued member of our board and community, and we look forward to seeing her host Print and Prosecco in Brisbane.” The acknowledgement that the contribution preceded the paperwork is the point: the role was earned through showing up, not through a title.
The SGM was attended by a quorum of members and held on Zoom, a format that lets a geographically distributed state like Queensland participate without everyone travelling to a single city. Members who were unable to attend can inspect the documentation and minutes in the member hub following the formal notification process with Consumer Affairs Victoria and ASIC. Holding the governance properly matters for a member-based organization, and the Zoom quorum is a small but real example of how industry associations adapted their administration to be accessible.
The Print and Prosecco events offer an informal environment for women across the print, signage, graphics and visual communications industries to connect, share ideas and experiences, and build professional networks. The series supports Women in Print’s broader focus on community, knowledge-sharing, professional development and mutual support. In a sector where women remain under-represented in senior technical and ownership roles, that informal network is often the difference between someone leaving the industry and someone staying and advancing.
Next Thursday’s Print and Prosecco is being held at Fiume Rooftop Bar, Crystalbrook Vincent, in Brisbane City from 6pm to 8.30pm. The choice of a relaxed, social venue is deliberate: the model is that relationships formed over a glass of wine on a Thursday evening become the referral, the mentorship and the career move later. It is a soft infrastructure for an industry that has historically networked on the trade-show floor and the golf course.
The broader context is a printing and signage sector grappling with a workforce that is aging and narrowing. Initiatives like Women in Print are not charity; they are a retention and pipeline strategy for an industry that cannot afford to lose talent. A patron who is herself a national sales manager at a working printer brings credibility that a figurehead from outside the trade could not, and McCool’s confirmation signals the Queensland chapter intends to keep building.
For the Australasian print community, the takeaway is that the quiet, consistent work of community organizations is part of what keeps the industry’s talent pipeline alive. McCool’s formal appointment is a small administrative step with a larger meaning: the networks that support the next generation of print leaders are being maintained, one Brisbane evening at a time.
Source: Print21 – “McCool officially appointed WiP Patron Qld” by Wayne Robinson (2 October 2026).
Women in Print’s model works precisely because it is built on repetition and proximity; a quarterly dinner and a monthly social are unglamorous, yet they are what convert a lone woman in a male-dominated trade into a connected professional with options. McCool’s confirmation is a reminder that the quiet administration of member-based organizations is what keeps that infrastructure standing.
In a sector worried about an aging and narrowing workforce, community organizations like Women in Print are a retention strategy as much as a networking one, and a patron who is herself a working national sales manager brings the credibility that keeps members showing up. Queensland’s formal endorsement signals the chapter intends to keep building that pipeline.
The format matters as much as the title. A Zoom quorum keeps the governance legitimate and accessible across a large state, while the in-person Print and Prosecco evenings do the relationship-building that no spreadsheet captures, and the combination is what sustains a volunteer organization through the inevitable lulls between headline events. McCool’s credibility as a working national sales manager at MMT Print means she can speak to the commercial reality members live inside, not just cheerlead from outside it, and that authenticity is why the Queensland chapter has rallied around her since May. For an industry where informal networks still decide who gets the referral and the promotion, the quiet work of confirming the right patron is worth more than it looks.
