I have no particular love of London's Excel centre. In fact, from a personal point-of-view even though I live in London I can get to the NEC quicker than I can to London's Docklands.

That said, I haven't yet made the journey to Excel on a day when a major show is on (they run more DLR trains, more frequently), and of course none of us have yet experienced the infrastructure improvements that will benefit the area as a result of next year's Olympics.

The fact is, if we want to have a UK-based show of international scale (as opposed to Northprint or the now-defunct-for-obvious-reasons Southprint) then said show needs to attract the requisite number of international visitors for it to be funded out of manufacturers' global marketing budgets, as opposed to local marketing pots.

I've already heard gripes from exhibitors who are UK-based and only interested in UK visitors. But these companies can still capitalise on the audience being attracted to a larger, more vibrant show.

Regional print show Northprint attracted 2,250 visitors this year. The last Ipex attracted more than 26,000 domestic attendees out of a total 50,322 unique visitors. So, quite a lot. Show owner Informa Exhibitions fully expects the international crowd to overtake the locals come 2014, but if they can grow both audiences that doesn't necessarily mean there will be fewer Brits there.

I rather like the fact that Ipex will take over the entire exhibition space, unlike the NEC where we were quite likely to be on at the same time as 'Ferrets Today' or something equally irrelevant. Having ownership of the whole space - and being able to nominate, say, Canary Wharf as the place for print folk to hang out after hours, will be helpful in creating the sort of 'Ipex City' vibe that Dusseldorf does so enviably well for Drupa.

Visitors came to Ipex from 135 countries last time around, and guess what were the top three? France, Germany and the Netherlands. The Eurostar straight to central London looks appealing, and City Airport (and Stansted) have some good continental connections. And we have useful stuff like the Oystercard here in London for getting around, which could be bundled up as part of the visitor package.

Granted, domestic visitors may have to have a change of mindset from jumping in the car and heading to Brum, as for most people public transport to Excel will be a better option. That said, I can say with some certainty that lots of printcos from far-flung outreaches of this small island come to London on a regular basis to visit clients. And the fact that so many client companies are here in London should be helpful in tempting customers to attend Ipex, too.

"But London is so expensive" I hear you cry. Yes it is, but I don't recall the NEC or Birmingham being particularly bargainacious, either. And while Birmingham hotels definitely bring out their inflated Ipex ratecard every four years, the fact that London will be home to more than 120,000 hotel 'room nights' come 2014, compared to Brum with some 27,000, means there's more scale and more choice for people on different budgets.

One of the most hilarious comments on PrintWeek's story about the move was this from Sean Culluney: "That's me not going again then". So. You didn't go when it was at the NEC, and you won't go when it's at Excel. My sides! What is wrong with this picture, Sean? Who cares?

What I do care about is that we in the UK retain a print event of international importance, and if moving it to London is the best way to achieve that then I'm all for it.