Who could have imagined that one of the industry's most successful and growing exhibitions would be the brainchild of a manufacturer?

That's precisely the case with the biennial Hunkeler Innovation Days, which took place last week. Whoever it was at Hunkeler who came up with the original idea some 20 years ago deserves considerable plaudits, as do those at the top of the business who decided to run with it.

In a world where exhibitions are shrinking or disappearing from the calendar altogether, the Hunkeler gig is bucking the trend and going from strength to strength. I'm told they even had a waiting list of companies who wanted to exhibit this year - a situation the teams at other exhibition organisers must dream of.

HID has turned into a veritable who's who of manufacturers and users of high-volume digital production systems and accompanying snazzy finishing options. There were 60 partner exhibitors two years ago, this time around there were 80 along with the aforementioned waitlist. Hunkeler's UK distributor Friedheim International took 100 customers out to the event and its trip, too, was over-subscribed.

The event was awash with new and interesting bit of kit and applications, and I'm looking forward to reading more about it - my colleague Tim Sheahan who was on the spot in Lucerne is busy preparing a round-up of all the happenings for this week's issue.