The PIAA has welcomed the Packaging Council of Australia (PCA) into its headquarters in Sydney as part of a wider strategy to increase cooperation between all sectors of the printing industry.
"We're doing what a peak industry body should be doing by reaching out to all of the other industry associations in order to increase communication and collaboration across the entire sector," said new PIAA CEO Andrew Macaulay. "We need to be a dynamic, responsive peak industry organisation and we have the resources to help and support all of the specialty groups in the industry."
The PIAA and the PCA have signed an agreement 'to develop a collaborative and beneficial relationship' which will see PCA CEO David Carter moving into an office at the PIAA headquarters in Chatswood, Sydney.
"The PCA will utilise office space within PIAA premises for the purpose of undertaking its business activities in a corporate environment," said a PIAA statement.
"We reached out to them and they were keen to continue negotiation," said Macaulay, who dismissed suggestions of a possible future merger between the two associations. "You can't really have a merger when a lot of their members are also members of the PIAA. We're just looking to see how we can align with them and how we can help them."
Macaulay - who has hit the ground running since taking over the CEO job and just completed a national roadshow to meet with members - has also established the Printing Industries Curatorial Working Group to preserve the association's historical artifacts - an area of concern under the previous administration.
Industry veteran James Cryer of JDA Recruitment will assist Macaulay in determining the best way to preserve and display the PIAA's extensive collection of historical books and documents.
"James is fantastic and he's stepped up and offered to chair the working group as we reach out to any other members with interest and expertise to help with the task." The preservation of industry collections is of the utmost importance and we welcome members who are interested in the project to make contact and participate, he said.
Macaulay also revealed that the association recently stepped up its government lobbying activities.
"We've met with several key federal and state politicians and those negotiations are continuing, especially in the lead up to the federal election. We've also thrown our support behind the campaign against proposed changes to the parallel importation rules.
The PIAA has also launched a daily email newsletter. "We've listened to what our members are saying and they want open communication. The objective is to be in dialogue with our members. We don't want to inundate them with information but we do want them to know what we're doing."
Macaulay is eager to get on with the job. "Right from the start I knew I needed to get involved quickly and listen to as many people as I could. We're a big, complex industry and that alone would mean that I'd want to get busy."