Bear with me, please while I dwell on my one big negative from drupa - that being the non-appearance of Riso at the show.

After making a few fruitless circumnavigations of Hall 8b looking for the company, it eventually dawned on me that a seating area around the corner from the Delphax booth was the space where Riso should have been. Whaaaat?

I've kept an eye on this company ever since drupa 2004 when PrintWeek spotted Riso's low-cost 105ppm cut-sheet inkjet printer and brought it to the attention of the wider print industry. So this Riso no-show was disappointing in the extreme.

Mystified, I asked the company for an explanation. After all, just a few weeks ago we'd been promised Riso would be showing some new products.

Here's the response from managing director Tamal Saha: "Initially the plan for Drupa was to focus on work-flow solutions working with our Comcolor product (specifically a native IPDS controller solution being developed by a partner) and also prototypes of online finishing. Unfortunately as we got closer to the time it was clear that none of these solutions would be fully ready for Drupa and the decision was made by head office not to exhibit until they were more confident of the solutions working."

To my mind, not exhibiting at all was a big strategic mistake by head office. Plenty of companies had a very successful drupa without necessarily having loads of new products to show - Canon being one high-profile example.

Riso had a great location and would have benefited from all the footfall to the neighbouring Delphax booth where its new Elan printer was a big draw. With so much interest in inkjet printing of all types, Riso could still have showcased its existing product range to thousands of potential customers. 

And it must be extremely galling for the show organisers and for other exhibitors who would have dearly loved a spot in one of the sought-after digital halls.

All in all an epic fail. Wonder if the company will get its act together for Ipex 2014?