Every spring, a unified printing industry sends a delegation of leading voices to Capitol Hill to make the case for an industry that is far larger, more innovative, and more economically vital than most lawmakers realize.

Women in Print Alliance member Nikola Juhasz, Global Technical Director of Sustainability at Sun Chemical, was among the participants in the 2025 Printing Industry Legislative Fly-In, spending a busy day moving through six congressional offices.

We sat down with Nikola to hear what it was actually like — the rhythm of the day, the conversations that shifted, and what it means to show up and speak for print.

WPA: Capitol Hill was new territory for you. What was your first impression walking into those offices — and did anything surprise you about how the day actually worked?

Nikola: Walking into the first office, my immediate impression was how tightly choreographed everything was, with relatively small spaces; short, dense meetings and quick transitions; and a rhythm that felt more like an operations floor than what most of us may picture from the outside. A surprise for me was how important the aides, including very junior staff and interns, are to the overall day-to-day functioning. They’re often the ones who bring the subject matter expertise for their congresspeople, manage workflows, and handle the conversations. I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly and effectively our group, made up of previously unacquainted participants from across the printing value chain, came together to tell a common story. And I also gained tremendous appreciation for the critical role of an experienced guide (“sherpa”) to keep our team on track, moving us from meeting to meeting and building to building, making initial introductions, and setting context for each conversation. Capitol Hill is a very specific professional environment, with its own distinct pace and rules.

WPA: You opened several meetings by asking: “When you think of print, what comes to mind?” What were some of the most memorable answers — and what did those answers tell you about where the industry stands in the public imagination?

Nikola: Some of the most memorable answers were exactly what you might expect, which may be the unfortunate point. Staffers immediately thought of their office printers or copying machines (and the jams they had to clear that morning!), newspapers, campaign signs, and direct mail. In the general public’s perception, the industry still operates in a narrow window, even though print today also spans packaging and labels, advanced materials, and highly engineered functional applications. Through the subsequent discussions, our team was able to widen staffers’ views to the breadth and significance of the industry in the US economy, also provide examples of where print touches their everyday lives, and we could see the messages begin to click. The initial disconnect is fundamentally a visibility and awareness issue, and perfect opportunity for engagement.

WPA: Once the conversations opened up, what were the two or three most important things you wanted every lawmaker or staffer to walk away knowing about print?

Nikola: First, print is not a niche or antiquated business, rather it’s a large, diverse manufacturing industry that shows up in every district through jobs, suppliers, and a wide range of products people rely on. Second, policy has real and sometimes unintended implications, whether that’s related to the growing and complex patchwork of State-level extended producer responsibility laws in the absence of a Federal framework, or tariff impacts in an industry that depends on global supply chains. Third, the most effective advocacy is concrete; our constituent stories (what our companies produce, who we employ and where, and why the industry matters locally) resonated better than high-level talking points. Those stories are what we hope the congressional teams will keep in their minds as they think about print in the future.

WPA: Was there a moment in one of the six meetings where you felt the conversation shift — where you could tell something you said actually landed?

Nikola: This happened in several meetings, and interestingly (but unsurprisingly), the shift always happened when we connected a policy issue to a concrete, district-level impact: how a compliance change, a tariff input, or a definition on paper translates into cost, complexity, or missed opportunities for local employers. The first signs were often in body language: fewer “polite nods,” more follow-up questions, and more purposeful notetaking. Now we were not just another industry asking for attention, we were constituents explaining a real operational and economic consequence.

WPA: You’re now back to your “day job.” What’s the one thing from the advocacy fly-in experience you’re carrying with you — and would you encourage other women in print to participate in a future event?

Nikola: My biggest takeaway was a renewed appreciation for how Capitol Hill actually works, and how that reality shapes effective advocacy. What drives change on Capitol Hill is relationships, repetition, and clarity of message, delivered in a way staffers can translate into action within an incredibly demanding and noisy environment. I would absolutely encourage others from the print industry to participate, to further reinforce that message with additional perspectives grounded in real operations and real people. Authenticity matters. What works is simple: be prepared with your story, lead with it, and remember that visibility matters. If we don’t define what modern print is, someone else will, and quite likely inaccurately.

Thank you to Nikola and the other Women in Print Alliance members who volunteered their time and talent to participate in the 2026 Printing Industry Fly-In. Think you would be a good fit for next’s year’s fly-in? Follow us on LinkedIn for Save the Dates and to learn how to apply in 2027.