Come the weekend it will be just a month to go until Ipex opens its doors, and the first exhibitor on site (Heidelberg) will arrive at the NEC next week to start beginning their build.

IIR has just revealed that visitor pre-registrations have now breached 30,000, a figure that is notable for being 35% higher than the equivalent point in the previous show cycle in 2006. Encouraging news indeed, and let's hope the majority of these putative attendees turn up. It's stating the obvious, but if we want a world-class printing event to take place on our doorstep then we as an industry need to show up.

There will certainly be plenty of interesting things to see. This week we learned that Komori will be using the exhibition to launch a host of new products, including the worldwide debut for its latest B2 model, adding further items to what is becoming a long personal list of "must-sees". PrintWeek's extensive pre-show coverage is hopefully proving useful for readers who are determining their own essential selections, whatever the area of interest.

I honestly believe that anyone running a business in this industry - no matter how busy or how skint - would be mad not to attend. It doesn't matter whether you're in a position to wave a chequebook around or not, I defy anyone not to come back from an event like Ipex with at least one good idea.