Goverment Postage Stamp Printers' Conference?

Does anyone have any information on this regular conference? It is a big deal among security printers but there seems to be very little about it to be found online. I know it usually meets on even years and has been going since 1986. Typically international honors are awarded for the best recent stamps in a variety of categories.

I would like to compile a list of years and places; here's what I have so far:

1st 1986 - ?
2nd 1987 - Washington, DC
3rd 1989 - Perigueux, France
4th ?
5th 1994 - Tokyo, Japan
6th ?
7th? 1997 - Bordeaux, France
8th ?
9th 2000 - Rome, Italy
10th 2002 - Seoul, So Korea
11th 2004 - Krakow, Poland

Any additional details are welcome!

Found on a china post website
The 15th Government Postage Stamp Printers' Association Conference opened in Beijing on October 14, 2014.

More than 34 postal representatives from 11 countries, including China, Algeria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Japan, Switzerland, Poland, Spain, and the Faroe Islands attended the ceremony.

Li Pizheng, vice-general-manager of China Post Group Corporation (China Post) gave a speech at the opening ceremony. He said that this was the second time that China Post had organized the most prestigious and most professional conference on postal stamp printing in the world after the organization of the 11th conference in 2006. Li said that China Post will keep on supporting all the activities of the Stamp Printers' Association in the future.

2010 Brazil 13th conference - a stamp was issued GPSPA

Try this link out about the security printers conference as it lists all previous events under event history. www.securityprinters.org

It may not necessarily be about stamps and awards but it does mention stamps and it is about security printing conferences.

I have made screenshots of those pages and attached them below.

Thanks to both of you. No1phil, that's helpful information for something else that I'm researching, but it is not the same conference as a GPSPC. There are actually quite a few different security printing conferences -- mostly focused on currency.

GPSPC was established in 1986. A list of its 17 conferences held to date follows. All of this information was acquired from the internet and invariably using "official" sites, rather than collector.......

1st 1986 USA, [where?]
2nd 1987 USA, Washington DC
3rd 1989 France, Perigueux
4th 1992 Spain, [where?]
5th 1994 Japan, Tokyo
6th 1996 Germany, [where?]
7th 1998 USA, [where?]
8th 2000 Italy, Rome
9th 2002 Korea, Seoul
10th 2004 Poland, Krakow
11th 2006 PR of China, Beijing
12th 2008 Algeria, Algiers
13th 2010 Brazil, Rio de Janeiro
14th 2012 Portugal, Lisbon
15th 2014 PR of China, Beijing
16th 2016 Germany, Berlin
17th 2018 France, Paris
18th 2020 Czech Republic, Prague

That is fantastic, 65170 -- thanks for sleuthing out that information! You are a diligent digital searcher. Many thanks! If we're lucky, someone can fill in those few remaining holes.

Happy to help.

Following some more digging, I can now also confirm....
1986 was held in Washington DC,
1992 was held in Madrid,
1996 was held in Berlin.

This leaves just 1998 and I think it safe to assume that it would have been held in Washington DC, home to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing who were, probably, the host printer.

GLENN

Thanks again! You'll notice that there haven't been any conferences in the U.S. since '98. Because the BEP stopped printing stamps in 2006 and lost interest.

For those who may have been curious about what this research was for, I'd like to share some images of the three known folders produced for these conferences by the Bureau of Engraving & Printing. There were probably only 100 of each folder produced; only one is known in a private collection, the others are from the BEP archives.

1989 - Perigueux, France





1994 - Tokyo, Japan





1997 - Bordeaux, France





As you can see, there are a good number of these conferences which may have had BEP folders printed (up to about 2005), particularly the first two, which were held in the U.S. I don't know whether Bureau representatives attended any of the others. Unfortunately, even the BEP did not keep track of all these "Directors Folders," as they are called. If anyone is aware of unknown folders, I would be grateful if you could post scans.

Gregalex, You show a folder purporting to be from a 1997 GPSPC event in Bordeaux France. Certainly the logo is correct. I have never heard of this event and it breaks from the established frequency of every two years. Does the folder confirm dates and location? Glenn

The 2008 Government Postage Stamp Printers' Association (GPSPA) Conference in Algiers, was commemorated by a stamp, according to the WNS web-site.

https://www.wnsstamps.post/en/stamps/DZ026.08

I had to go back to the BEP's Historic Research Center for an answer. They supplied the images, but unfortunately they are too low-res for me to read the text from the folder. But according to my source it is specific: "Government Postage Stamp Printers' Conference, Bordeaux, France, April 9-10, 1997."

You're right, that is out of typical sequence. Can I ask what your source was for the year dates?

GregAlex, My sources were many and varied. I have no record of them, as they were from such unrelated, and often non philatelic, websites. I invariably had more than one source per event.

Your folder scan uses the generic GPSPA logo and not the more usual event specific version. I wonder if 1997 was a gathering but not an official conference, as such?

Glenn

It may be one of those unsolved mysteries, unless someone finds mention about it in a trade journal or newspaper. I don't think the Bureau has any additional information.