Who’d want to be president of Australia’s Single Width Users Group, when you keep getting thrown in the stocks every few years? But for Bob Lockley – who suffered a similar indignity when the group held its conference in Yandina – consolations were at hand, as our picture shows.

The period punishment was meted out during festivities at Hobart’s Bond Store following a visit to the new print site for News Limited daily the ‘Mercury’.

Some 220 delegates from 41 print sites in Australia and New Zealand are at SWUG’s 25^th annual conference, which continues tomorrow.

The programme has been a mix of networking and highly-technical presentations, beginning with a welcome cruise on the Derwent river.

Two recurring themes so far have been opportunities for newspapers through UV and inkjet printing, two technologies whose time appears have finally come. International speakers Paul Casey (Sun Chemical) and Pat Keogh – both from the UK – provided and the context and the detail for newspapers contemplating UV curing as a means to value-added production.

And Warren Hinder (Fujifilm Australia) and Rob Mollee (Kodak) explained how the fast-developing technologies in inkjet print could be applied to both imprinting and short-run newspaper production.

Both are at a tipping point in the local marketplace, with orders and installations expected this year.

The SWUG programme continues in a similarly technical vein tomorrow with presentations including health and safety and maintenance issues.

Climax will be the annual presentation dinner at which technical awards, $30,000 of prizes, and the winner of this year’s top apprentice will be announced.