Canon Discusses Publishing Industry Challenges at Abu Dhabi Future Book Forum
Shadi Bakhour, the Business Unit Director for B2B at Canon Middle East, speaks about his company’s participation at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and Future Book Forum
Tell us about Canon’s participation at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2018? What did you showcase?
Canon participated at this year’s Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and as part of our participation, we set up a stand showcasing a live demonstration of a digital book production workflow. This helps publishers better understand the important role technology plays in creating opportunities and overcoming current industry challenges.
The workflow demonstration was being showcased through Canon imagePRESS Color, Oce varioPRINT B&W, bookbinding, and Web-to-Print Technologies. On our stand, we were also hosting Jamalon, an online bookstore operated by Canon’s technology and Art Plus, showcasing an online photo book printing workflow.
Lastly, during this year’s ADIBF, we introduced the first-ever Future Book Forum for the Middle East region in partnership with Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi.
What is the Future Book Forum and how important was this event for Canon?
The Abu Dhabi Future Book Forum was the first-ever of its kind in the region by Canon. It is an extension to the European Future Book Forum which has been running for the past five years in Germany.
The objective of the Forum was to discuss the latest publishing industry challenges in the Middle East through a full day agenda that included a panel discussion, workshops, and case studies among top publishers from the region. The event is important for the printing and publishing industry in this region as Canon along with the attendees will be addressing key challenges faced by the printing and publishing industry, potential solutions on how new technologies can help improve profitability and identifying new opportunities for growth.
Through the finding at the Forum, we aim to define a better future for the book, making them even more personal, intelligent and useful – the “Smart Book”. The Future Book Forum was held on Saturday, April 28, 2018.
Tell us about your partnership with Department of Culture and Tourism? Will we see more these in the future or is it just a one-off?
Our partnership with Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi is to host the Future Book Forum for five years (till 2022) as one of the main activities at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. The main objective of this partnership is to support the printing and publishing industry in the Middle East by developing insights on the latest trends that can help businesses by reducing costs, increasing sales and profitability.
What’s your outlook for the print and publishing industry in the Middle East?
The Middle East market still has a long way to go when it comes to the print and publishing industry. According to a report done by Simthers Pira, it shows that the future of printing in the Middle East and North Africa as a whole is set to expand from a value of $26.8 billion in 2017 at an annual rate of 8.7% to pass $40 billion in 2022.
These stats tell us that there is a lot of potential in the market and our aim at Canon is to steer this growth towards a digital transformation of the print and publishing industry. Our main driver has always been tied up to being innovative and flexible with our product and solution-based offerings. Our goal at Canon is to facilitate businesses through driving efficiency and drawing high ROI rates by unveiling opportunities that our customers can monetize on.
Tell us about your products and solutions for the printing and publishing industry?
Canon currently provides customers with an end-to-end publishing solution, with the ability to outsource printing and design and manage the entire process with the digital book production workflow solution. The full on-demand book production solution is being, showcased on our stand during the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, demonstrated through our products; Canon imagePRESS Color and Oce varioPRINT B&W, an innovative suite of solutions that print digitally, but with the speed and quality of offset printing which includes a unique feature, Web-To-Print, which makes book printing on-demand easier and bookbinding solutions.
Through our solution, we aim to help publishers better understand the important role technology plays in creating opportunities and overcoming current industry challenges. Overall, our customers can expect digital integration, application-based solutions and customization within the printing landscape among many other benefits of collaborating with Canon.
Additionally, we are always investing and driving a consistent R&D, innovative and a customer-centric ecosystem. From which our team aims to enhance, optimize, and ease workflows within businesses whilst ultimately staying up to date with this rapidly demanding and evolving world of technology.
