ISA/Serigrafia Partnership Underscores Industry Globalization

As many of you have heard, the Intl. Sign Assn. (ISA) and the organizers of Serigrafia, Latin America’s largest tradeshow for textile-, inkjet- and screenprinting, announced an organizational partnership at the recently concluded Serigrafia 2013 show. According to ISA, each organization will promote the other’s show, and ISA will provide educational materials for next year’s Serigrafia event. As the partnership matures, other facets should develop.

Cooperative efforts benefit the sign industry. All parties involved in the business need to stay abreast of new equipment and materials that could help growth, as well market trends which could impact future development. And, the linking of high-profile organizations can only enhance the resources available to their member shops.

The partnership is certainly timely. In the coming years, Latin America will shine prominently on the world stage. Next summer, Brazil will host the World Cup, and, in 2016, Rio de Janeiro, the country’s second-largest, flamboyant city, will host the Summer Olympics. Signage will certainly play a vital role in branding both events, which will provide Latin America, and Brazil in particular, a chance to flex its economic muscle. The country belongs to the BRIC quartet (Brazil, Russia, India and China), which comprise countries with rapidly growing economies, but Brazil is probably the least recognized of the four.

According to a 2008 The Economist report summary from posted in Wikipedia, Brazil ranked fifth worldwide in population and labor-force size, while also ranking third in the world in renewable-energy usage (based in large part on the country’s heavy use of sugar-ethanol as a fuel source), and mobile-phone and Internet users. Although Brazil’s GDP stood at just over $2 trillion in 2010, it’s projected to explode to more than $11 trillion by 2050 – nearly more than 500% growth, By comparison, the U.S. economy is projected to grow 165% ($14.5 to $34.5 trillion) during the same span.

That’s the macroeconomic spin. In micro terms, this growth will entail more businesses – and, thus, more signage. ISA officials understood the wisdom of embracing such growth potential, and Serigrafia’s leaders foresee the needs to equip its region’s sign industry with the tools to manage such an economic boom. Coupled with ISA’s operation of a pavilion at Print 13, a show that takes place September 8-12 in Chicago and serves the full gamut of printing technologies and application, it’s clearly important to them to expand the sign industry’s reach.

It will be interesting to see how the partnership unfolds. It’s usually better for an organization’s members when it works in cooperation, rather in competition. Here’s hoping it leads to positive growth and more exchanges of information for the sign industry.
 

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