With six-and-a-bit months to go until next year's Northprint show, I do hope that owner IIR's plans to reinvigorate the exhibition come to fruition.

I've always had a soft spot for Northprint, it's been an enjoyable event on my personal print calendar for ooh, twenty-something years. I like the fact that it's in Harrogate, a lovely part of the country (being based in London most of the time it's nice to go somewhere where the air hasn't been through too many other sets of nostrils before I get my sniff at it), a location that is made even more attractive by being home to the inestimable Betty's café tea rooms. No doubt I've mentioned all of this before. 

In its best years there has also been a real community feel about the show involving bumping into lots of people from the industry in and around the town.

But. It obviously needs work. It seems to me that IIR could usefully adopt approach more akin to Easyfairs, rather than waste time and energy trying to attract the big name 'stakeholder' exhibitors such as the Heidelbergs and HPs of this world. I realise that signing up such names supposedly pull in other exhibitors, but perhaps it's time for a different approach.

I'm thinking about how successful Bodoni Systems was at the last Northprint in 2009. The firm just had a little stand but it was busy busy busy throughout the entire event. This is a small supplier with some innovative and highly-affordable products. We've got lots of Bodoni-like businesses in this industry now, and surely lots of people involved with running printing businesses who'd be interested in a time-effective event that provided a showcase for the nifty bits of kit/software that they offer.

So why not turn Northprint into a show focused on print innovations from smaller suppliers, perhaps with a standard range of smallish stand sizes? If the big suppliers want to get involved too, then great, they can take the biggest small stand.