We caught up with Deborah Corn and Danna Drion at Fespa Global Print Expo in Berlin to get the lowdown on the European launch of Girls Who Print
Girls Who Print is the largest global professional network for women in the print and graphic communications industry. A woman-owned, not-for-profit organisation, over the past 15 years it has grown its membership to more than 11,000 print professionals. Despite being an international organisation, however, its activities have been strongest in North America to date. But that is about to change following the launch of Girls Who Print Europe at Fespa Global Print Expo in Berlin last month.
The creation of a European arm owes much to Danna Drion, general manager for marketing and product management at Mimaki Europe, who says the association will thrive if it is more local. Now a member of Girls Who Print’s European advisory board, Danna explains: “Girls Who Print is a global organisation but, as I know from Mimaki, if you have a local subsidiary, you can leverage on a local level, in local languages, and run local programmes, aligning with the umbrella of Girls Who Print.”
A good kick-off
She was among female business leaders, entrepreneurs and printers who attended the launch at Fespa Global Print Expo along with Girls Who Print executive director Deborah Corn and its programme director, Kelly Mallozzi. “It was a good kick-off, very positive,” Danna adds. “Everybody at the launch came out feeling inspired, that we learnt something, with a positive feeling that this is the way forward. It’s a long journey but we made a really good first step. There is a lot of demand for an association for women and young people to get together and share experiences and learn from each other.”
Deborah hopes that people in the UK garment decoration sector will join the movement, with plans for forums covering different segments of the industry, including garment printing. “We’ve always been global but we never had strong support from people in Europe until now,” she says. Building on what has been achieved in North America, there are plans for mentoring, webinars, round tables, career coaching, HR support and events, with an emphasis on on-demand online resources for accessibility.
“We want to empower women not only to get in the room, but feel that they belong in the room,” Deborah adds. “It’s important to get women into the industry and to keep them there and contributing, ensuring they can see a clear career path to senior roles. There’s a lot of power in ‘I feel seen’ and ‘I feel heard’, and that’s not an experience that a lot of women have in the world, let alone in male-dominated industries. So, it’s important to be around other women – not to whine or complain, but to say how did you handle this, how do I navigate this.”
Female business leaders, entrepreneurs and printers at the European launch of Girls Who Print at Fespa Global Print Expo 2025
Men welcome too
She points out that Girls Who Print is not just for women. “It’s also about helping men to navigate what to do in their companies. For instance, one man at the launch talked about how he has a responsibility to say something when he sees something wrong instead of walking away. He can play a positive role. That’s how we get change.”
The association aims to support young people generally, particularly with career guidance, as part of its diversity remit. “You need people who think differently,” Deborah explains. “If everybody comes from the same place, has the same background, change won’t happen. Sometimes in the print industry, when you’re a young person, there’s so much going on that you don’t understand where a clear career path is.”
Looking around at visitors to Fespa Global Print Expo in Berlin, Deborah noted there were more women attending than in the past. “This is a positive step, but what I wonder is, ‘Are they all assistants and marketing people or are they leading technology departments?’ Just the fact there are more women at a trade show does not mean that things are getting better. We have to be more aware of unconscious bias in this industry. Often women are interviewed for marketing jobs, and men for the production jobs and technology jobs.”
From the perspective of a global manufacturing company, Danna remains hopeful. “Since I came into the industry nearly 10 years ago, I’ve seen change and a trend in the right direction. But change does not come quickly and there are a lot of hurdles.”
