The soccer fan jerseys arrived earlier this week and today is the first Friday almost everybody in the office was all dressed up in bright yellow soccer garb. So it’s official. Sytech Supplies is 100% behind Bafana Bafana in this 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup. We will don our yellow Bafana Bafana fan jerseys every Friday and every day during the games later this year.

CEO - Malcolm Groger	Arthur..
Markus Mellenius	Scelo, Madiba and Mondli
Vish	Brian and Zandi
Trevor	Richard
Dane	Pat

Starting January, 2010, the effective date of the asset purchase agreement, all distributor and reseller rights and obligations vis-à-vis Triline International S.r.l. pertaining to the transferred business, shall be considered transferred to Rowmark Italy S.r.l., which will be the new partner for the future. Everybody here at Sytech Supplies are excited about the synergies of the state of the art Triline designs combined with Rowmark’s ClearPath Signage Systems worldwide. This presents many very positive combinations and a significant opportunity for our distributors, resellers and the global sign making industry as a whole.

We are the South African brand partner for Triline Signs.

Events for the year kicked off on 4 February in the form of the Durban Signs & Graphics Roadshow 2010. All the big names in signs & graphics were in attendance. Sadly there was no vehicle wrap exhibition or activity on the use of media and materials on display. The stands were very well organised, with Midcomp coming in a bit disappointing, but close enough to the entrance to hijack the attention of those coming and going. Sadly, the newest and probably most fascinating machine in the building, IMDM‘s 1.8 metre Solaris eco-solvent printer was on display right at the back of the hall. Nonetheless they had a good crowd coming to check the wave-printing, beautiful colour printing machine out.

We attended briefly, however..

Here.. see for yourself:

On the evening of Thursday, 12 November 2009, Practical Publishing held their annual year-end event where they launch dates and floorplans for the following year’s series of Signage & Graphics exhibitions. The event was held at the Q.ba Caffe in Stoneridge Centre, Edenvale. Stunning venue.

After doing the kulula.com thing to Lanseria, a 30 minute rest at my accommodation, a meeting in Sandton and a Ster Kinekor press preview, I headed for Edenvale. It took me and Khetha (the guy who runs Yeahbo) about 30 minutes just to find a road that leads to Edenvale, and we eventually rocked up at Q.ba Caffe at 7:45. We were greeted at the door by Dyelan and Tumelo (the new guy). I introduced Khetha to them, being the courteous person that I am. We were told to grab a drink and then find a place to sit. Khetha had a glass of red wine and I the normal – White Grapetiser. We found ourselves a seat next to the guys from Big Media.

The event went smooth.. very smooth.. lots of changes coming too. Charnia kicked it off with how the company started and how far they’ve come. She ran through a number of slides (that could have been done better since they have access to an entire industry of creatives) that explained briefly every point she was talking about at the time. Then Dyelan went through the changes. The one I like the most is that their website will undergo an overhaul soon. The new one looks like a WordPress or Joomla site. I love the fact that they’re building a site that plugs into the social tools available online. Dyelan proceeded to explain that the 2010 show will now become a “roadshow’ and will be hosted in Polokwane and Nelspruit as well. Dates for the 2010 Sign Africa events are as follows:

• Durban – 4 February 2010 at the Durban ICC
• Nelspruit – 18 May 2010 at the Emnotweni Casino
• Polokwane – 22 April 2010 at the Meropa Casino
• Cape Town – 5 & 6 may 2010 at the Cape Town ICC
• Johannesburg – 8 to 10 September 2010 at the Sandton Convention Centre

(a bit disappointed that PE is not included, since we’re opening an office in PE soon)

There are a few name changes to the events as well. Their Signal online property will change its name to VISCOM and Print Update will change to AFRICA PRINT.

Then came the landgrab. No sooner had Dyelan explained that the floorplans were stuck on the window and that each company had to take their pick and most of the big kahunas were up and darting towards the floorplans. I remember seeing the head honcho of GSW finding and marking their space before anybody else could. I myself made a beeline for the floorplans and was like 3 places behind the GSW guy.

All in all, things went orderly. Everybody managed to get their space booked, after which dinner was served.
I had the Chicken Arabiata, which was an OK pasta dish – very filling too. Then it was on to socialising.. after which Khetha and made plans to leave.. but not before I downed 2 more grapetisers and Khetha another glass of wine. I was there, the company’s space was booked. (and man did we get ourselves a premium site this time around) All’s well that ends well.

Oh.. Charnia.. Dyelan.. Linda.. Saralee.. Tumelo.. thanks for a wonderful evening.. My kids loved the nougat.