Canon Middle East hosted a  round table event for a discussion on the scope an d potential of large format printing in the Middle East region.

Sharing insight at the event were Wouter Kingma - independent photographer, Canon LFP brand ambassador;  Shadi Bakhour, general manager for Canon Emirates;  Ayman Ali, marketing manager and Yasser El Farra, managing director, Tenaui Middle East Trading.

Initiating the discussion,  Bakhour said: “Customers are knowledgable and aware of what exactly what they want. At the same time, they are often unaware of the many solutions that we sell.”

Sharing their opinion on options between offset and digital, the participants said that costs, speed, print    runs would determine the decision in favour of either technology.

Ali added: “Offset is evolving as well, and the cost of digital printing is dropping.  Five years ago the quality difference between offset and digital was huge, while now that has narrowed.  Even digital is inching closer to offset in terms of colour consistency, colour accuracy, mix of technology among others. Yes, offset does have an advantage in case of very long runs and static jobs, but where customisation, speed, short runs are required, digital has an edge over offset. Also, we believe that only products and technology do not have value, we sell the business proposition. We should understand the customer’s requirements, and then provide him with the appropriate solutions.”

El Farra as a user of technology shared his opinion saying: “A lot of customers using large format printers have limited knowledge about the technology and software, and that’s where we come in - we try to educate the customer throug h workshops and by bringing together the hardware manufacture, the media supplier, the software developer to educate the customer. We try to explain to them that before you ask about the price, ask about what the technology can do for you, the options available.”