So, IIR has bitten the bullet and canned this year’s Total Print Expo show. I’m not surprised. Exhibitions can be big business, but they can also rack up equally big losses if things don’t turn out well. Informa, the parent company of IIR, reported revenues of £441.6m from its events division last year, along with a healthy profit. Such returns are the reason Informa paid £770m to acquire IIR back in 2005.

But in a downturn only exceptionally well-placed exhibitions will produce the required returns, and let’s face it the printing industry is hardly a booming sector at the moment. IIR used up a chunk of goodwill with the ill-fated Northprint show in the spring, where a 60% decline in visitor numbers tells its own story, no matter how positive some exhibitors were about the quality of the visitors who did show up. If IIR had pushed ahead with TPE then it could have seriously damaged sentiments for next year’s Ipex.

I would love to be privy to the contents of Nicky Mason’s inbox, as she’s invited feedback on what exhibitors and visitors want from TPE. My 10p worth is that next year they won’t want a show just five or six months after Ipex, either. What’s the point?

With the economic outlook so uncertain, surely the IIR team will be better occupied nailing down exhibitor commitments for the big one next May, as well as drumming up the necessary international visitors to ensure Ipex retains its all-important global standing, rather than expending their energies on a “so what” show in grubby London.