The official kickoff session of FTA’s 2012 Annual Forum “Flexo: Brand of Choice” will capture the attention of more than 1,600 flexographic printing professionals in attendance at the Grand Hyatt in San Antonio for the March 18-21 event. Dubbed “FOG’D 2012: Reality Flexo”, the session will set the overall tone of the conference as presenters and audience members alike scrutinize real-world print samples to determine if flexo truly is the “brand of choice.”

Chaired by industry veterans Jean Jackson, Praxair Surface Technologies, Mark Mazur, DuPont Packaging Graphics and Mark Samworth, EskoArtwork, the session will take real-world print jobs and pit flexo against its competition (offset, gravure and digital) to determine if flexo prevails in terms of quality, repeatability and color accuracy.

The concept was borrowed from a session featured 11 years ago on the 2001 Forum agenda. Then it was called “Project FOG.”

“Back in 2001, the intent was to prove flexo was a quality print process, one that deserved to be put on the same stage as offset and gravure.” says co-chair Jean Jackson. “The 2012 session is not about proving flexo as a viable print process, after all we already know flexo is capable. Our goal now is to garner insight from CPCs whose jobs run on all of the print processes, and to learn from printers who will discuss the reasons they transitioned over to flexo.”

CPC participants include Diageo, Kimberly Clark and Tyson Foods. Additionally, Printron will address the unique challenges and opportunities of corrugated packaging, and how it matches brand requirements.

Printer participants include American Packaging, Label-Pak, Flexo Print, G3, and Worcester Envelope. They will impart their own insights and experiences from each of the processes and some will share actual print samples from real-world production jobs, revealing the impact that new press technologies, prepress practices and streamlined processes/controls have had on flexo’s performance. Presenters and spectators alike will inspect the samples and analyze the print quality of flexo, offset, gravure and digital.

For information on attending Forum 2012, visit FTA’s website at www.flexography.org.