All you ever wanted to know about markets and applications for digital inkjet technology will be revealed at a one-day impact forum organised by Pira at their Leatherhead HQ on 23 October. Amongst a cast of luminaries taking the podium will be Inca Digital md Bill Baxter, Xaar technical director Steve Temple plus Pira’s Philip Swinden. Delegate fee is £499. Call Pira on +44 (0)1372 802101 to book in.

Digital technology for packaging applications will also be in evidence at IIR’s first-time Digital Print World exhibition (Olympia 2: 25 – 27 November), extended to incorporate a dedicated focus on supply chain issues. With the emphasis as much on talking through solutions as demonstrating equipment, brand owners and designers should feel equally as comfortable at the show as converters, say IIR. Call Louisa Theobald on +44 (0)207 915 5659, or pre-register online: www.digitalprintworld.co.uk

And finally … good to hear that Talking Shop’s favourite inventor Mark Sheahan has got some long overdue recognition from the British establishment, with an invite to attend upon their HRHs no less at a Buck House reception this month to acknowledge the contribution made by ‘pioneers to the life of the nation’.

Last we heard, Sheahan was planning to take along one of his simply squeeze to open prototypes filled with treats for the Royal corgis – not a bad ploy for picking up a by appointment tag.