This year’s guest speaker was Alan Samson of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, one of the UK’s leading publishers. He spoke on ‘The Printed Word’, entertaining guests with his anecdotes of working with celebrities like Catherine Deneuve, Julie Walters and Keith Richards during the past 30 years.
He went on to discuss the challenges for publishers in the digital age. The proliferation of blogs means that people can self-publish, whilst the public have embraced the new technology, with an estimated 2.4 million Kindles sold in the last 12 months. Nevertheless, he argued printers and publishers will continue to have a hugely significant role. There will still be demand for printed books, for instance as presents, because you cannot gift-wrap a download.
At the event, Bill Offer, the charity’s Chairman (pictured on the left receiving the award from Sir Christopher Meyer), received a Pro Merito award from the charity in recognition of his work for The Printing Charity over the past 13 years and in the printing industry. Thanking everyone for supporting the event, he said: “Even in these dire times, we know the charity is not reaching many of the people who need financial help. We’re asking everyone in the printing and publishing industries to spread the word that The Printing Charity has the resources to help.”
