HP has brought together the industry’s most informed voices to look at what the future holds. The discussion explores the positive changes and developments that can drive the publishing industry in the 21st century. This opportunity allows us to gain fabulous knowledge sharing with a great panel looking at the insights into the publishing marketing. In particular, what is happening to our industry, our joint industry and the impact of the COVID pandemic. 

Leading the conversation is Marco Eikelenboom. Marco has been Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Graphic Papers at Sappi Europe since 2008. His professional career started in 1992 with KNP Fine Paper in the Netherlands. Then, after several commercial positions in Maastricht and Paris, he was appointed Manager of Corporate Planning, when KNP Leykam was acquired by Sappi in 1997.

Following this corporate strategy position, Marco took on the role of Managing Director of Sappi Benelux and left in 2002, to move to Sappi's Head Office in Johannesburg to become Marketing Director. Marco came back to Brussels as Director of Marketing Sales in 2005, and after the acquisition and integration of M Rio Graphics, he assumed the Global Marketing and Sales, responsible for the graphics business of Sappi Europe. 

Supporting Marco in our podcast is Bastian Scevonka, who has been with the Bertelsmann Corporation since 2009 with a team-based all over Europe, taking care of all international sales activities for the German-based factories of the Bertelsmann Printing Group. They serve a wide field of printed goods, such as catalogues, flyers, magazines, as well as books, and mailings.

In particular, in the book market, they serve the domestic market in Germany, as well as international publishers based in Europe, including the U.K, and further field in the U.S. 

Our second expert in this podcast is Emmanuel Bandeggi. He is a Sales and Marketing Director at Rotolito, which is a family-owned company based in Italy, with nine production plants, which are mainly based in the Milan area. Rotolito is a printing company that has always specialized in book printing, with a special focus on the educational, and illustrative books.

Alderano Fileni joins the conversation from a South American perspective. Alderano has worked for Grupo Print Laser for more than 20 years. Today he is the COO and also a Board Member of the Group. He shares the challenges that the pandemic has brought to that part of the world, but also discusses the positive gains in a post-pandemic bounce back, specifically in the book business.

This open and passionate discussion gives us great insight into the global state of publishing. From the outside, people would probably think that the future looks less bright than that which is painted in this podcast. The determination and resilience the panellist have demonstrated during COVID makes any future challenges less of a worry and gives us confidence that our industry is now better equipped to overcome them.

Emanuele Bandecchi (Rotolito, Italy)
Bastian Czerwonka (MohnMedia, Germany)
Alderano Fileni (Grupo Print Laser, Brazil)
Marco Eikelenboom (SAPPI) MODERATOR