SWUG Conference

The annual SWUG conference for newspaper production staff will be held at Hobart’s Wrest Point hotel and conference centre from Friday 25 March to Sunday 27 March, 2011.

It will be the first time that the SWUG conference has been held in Hobart and the first time that it has visited Tasmania since it was hosted by the Launceston Examiner in 2000.

The host site next year will be the News Limited-owned Davies Brothers print centre, publishers of The Mercury and Sunday Tasmanian newspapers in Hobart.

“This promises to be a very popular destination for SWUG members so I advise everybody to make a note of the dates and plan their trip well in advance,” said Bob Lockley, SWUG president (pictured).

The 2011 conference will see the return of events including the Friday night welcome function sponsored by Kodak and the Saturday night host site visit which will be held at the nearby Davies Brothers print centre.

This brand-new print centre was opened in May 2009 and is home to a six tower KBA Comet pressline capable of printing 96 pages of tabloid colour in a single pass.

In addition to the local daily papers, the site also produces editions of The Australian and Herald-Sun newspapers for News Limited, the first time that these titles have been printed in Tasmania.

Ancillary systems on the pressline include QuadTech registration, Baldwin spray dampening and Impact blanket washing, Planatol gluing system, and Technotrans dampening and ink supply.

In prepress, there are two Agfa Polaris CTP lines while the mailroom features two Ferag RollSert drums, RollStream insert lines, Jet Feeder hoppers and trimming drum with stackers, film wrappers and cross strappers.

“This will be a great site to visit and a good opportunity to see one of the most modern single-width presses in Australia in action,” added Lockley.