Amid a plethora of Ipex-related tasks here at PrintWeek Towers, am very much enjoying some additional vicarious Ipex activity from the other side of town – that being seeing Ipex 2014 take shape through the pics being posted on Twitter by exhibitors currently busy with the build-up at London’s Excel.

I absolutely love the way the blank canvas of the exhibition halls is being transformed into a print-based cornucopia of delights.

Special, um, thanks to Fujifilm, Konica Minolta, IFS and Xeikon for keeping me entertained, if distracted from actual work.

Am itching to see it all for myself. As the countdown speeds towards Monday morning and the official opening of the show, one thing is clear – there is going to be much of interest to see and hear at Ipex 2014.

In fact, the show’s new format makes it ever so easy to decide whether or not it’s worth attending.

And the more compact format means it’s possible for UK attendees to make a tightly-focused, time-efficient visit.

That said, I remain a proponent of building in a bit of ‘creative wandering around time’ whenever I go to an event. I have yet to embark upon such a foray without happening upon something new and interesting that I wasn’t aware of beforehand.

I’ve said before that the speaker line-up offers up some delicious propositions, and when it comes to the kit being demonstrated on the show floor it seems obvious to me that companies are there with a purpose – they have something new or meaningful to show, and from what I can see so far they have come up with a variety of interesting ways to do that.

So, hope to see you, dear reader, at Excel next week. Us PrintWeekers will be beavering away producing the IpexDaily. Swing by and say hello if you’re passing, we’re on stand S5-F396 in the south hall.

Alternatively I’ll be the person wandering around in the nether corners of the farthest aisle, looking for that nugget of info that will make it all worthwhile.