中文A delegation of National Print Awards winners has completed a study tour of the United Kingdom, gaining first-hand insight from some of Britain’s most progressive print businesses. Hosted by the Visual Media Association (VMA), the programme is part of a deliberate strategy to expose Australian print leaders to international best practice – and it will continue next year with a trip to Tokyo.
The 2026 delegation travelled across London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham, combining five print business site visits with two days at the major UK exhibition The Print Show, plus dedicated technology sessions and industry networking. The group included 2026 National Print Awards Woman of the Year Katherine Puttock of Lane Communications; Woman of the Year runner-up Magdaline Coleman of Coleman Printing; Emerging Talent of the Year Angas Adcroft of MCC Labels; VMA Board representative Simon Lane of Lane Communications; and Gold Sponsor representative Steve Fisher of Fujifilm Business Innovation Australia.
Site visits took in Augustus Martin, Stylographics, Imageco, Precision Proco and Hickling and Squires, exposing delegates to operations spanning commercial, digital and wide-format print, retail and experiential production, automation, personalisation, direct mail, web-to-print and fulfilment. The breadth was deliberate: the goal was to show Australian leaders how UK businesses approach automation, people, customers, investment and growth.
At The Print Show, delegates attended technology sessions with Fujifilm Business Innovation Australia, Konica Minolta and Plockmatic Group, together with a Print Mastermind session hosted by Colin Sinclair McDermott, The Online Print Coach. Those sessions gave the group a close look at the tools shaping the next phase of print productivity.
VMA CEO Kellie Northwood said the programme demonstrated the value of taking emerging and established industry leaders outside the Australian market. “The site tours were the standout,” she said. “Opening the doors to different businesses and seeing how they approach automation, people, customers, investment and growth creates ideas you simply cannot get from behind a desk. Importantly, our delegates have returned with practical thinking they can apply in their own businesses.”
Building on the UK programme’s success, the VMA has confirmed the international experience will continue for the 2027 National Print Awards. Major Award winners will be in the running to win an all-expenses-paid trip to Tokyo, Japan. The Tokyo programme will include visits to leading innovation and experience centres, the International Graphic Arts Show, and a paper mill tour, giving winners direct exposure to Japanese print technology, manufacturing and innovation.
Northwood framed the awards as more than a single night of recognition. “The National Print Awards should do more than recognise excellence on one night. We want winning to open doors, build careers and connect our industry’s best talent with the best thinking in the world. In 2026 that was the UK. In 2027, we’re taking our winners to Tokyo, so start thinking about your teams, your colleagues, your supply partners and prepare your Major Award entry.”
For an industry grappling with skills shortages and rapid technology change, such programmes matter. They turn competition into community, and recognition into capability. By sending award winners overseas to learn, the VMA is betting that the ideas brought home will strengthen the entire Australian print sector.
Article based on reporting from Print21.
Why does international exposure matter so much for a relatively small market like Australia? The print sector everywhere faces the same structural pressures – consolidation, labour shortages, digital disruption and sustainability mandates – but the answers are often being pioneered elsewhere. Seeing how a UK business has automated a bindery, or how a wide-format shop has built an experiential division, gives Australian leaders concrete, transferable ideas they can adapt at home. Northwood’s point is that such insights cannot be acquired from behind a desk.
The programme also addresses the industry’s succession and leadership challenge. By including Emerging Talent of the Year alongside established leaders, the VMA builds a pipeline of internationally literate professionals who will steer Australian print through the next decade. Sponsor involvement, such as Fujifilm BI’s participation, reinforces the message that major suppliers see the programme as an investment in the market’s future, not merely a marketing line.
The Tokyo extension for 2027 raises the stakes. Japan is a global centre of print engineering and automation, and an all-expenses-paid study tour there will be a powerful incentive for Major Award entrants. It also signals the VMA’s ambition: Australian print should benchmark itself against the world’s best, not just the local field. For award winners, the value compounds – recognition becomes a catalyst for capability.
Programmes like this also strengthen the industry’s employer brand at a time when attracting young talent is a persistent challenge. Winners returning with fresh ideas and international perspective become ambassadors who can make print careers look dynamic rather than dated. The VMA’s framing – that winning should open doors and build careers – reframes awards from a vanity exercise into a development pathway. If the Tokyo edition lands as planned, the 2027 cohort will return with a view of print technology few Australian professionals otherwise get to see firsthand.
