The marketing theme for the four-day event, which takes place on 8-11 March 2016, is ‘Become a Digital Print Hero’ and features three superheroes: Digiman; Textilewoman; and ESEman for each of the three zones, Fespa Digital, Fespa Textile and European Sign Expo.

“The revival of the comic book hero is very evident, and we think all printers are heroes in their own way. The show will be about those heroes combining their strengths to be even more dynamic,” said Fespa divisional director Roz McGuinness.

To mark its 10th birthday the event will return to Amsterdam’s RAI, where it was born in 2006. It will occupy 42,000sqm gross across the RAI’s seven Europa halls, compared to 33,000sqm at Barcelona in 2012 and 37,000sqm at Munich in 2014.

However, McGuinness said that with next year being a Drupa year she’s not necessarily expecting Amsterdam to top the record-breaking Munich show in terms of number of exhibitors, 536, although she highlighted that exhibitors had already signed up “in mass and are coming in strength, with no noticeable reduction in stand sizes”.

“I don’t think we’ll be far away from that [circa 530 exhibitors], but the problem is that we might run out of space. In Munich we had the luxury of being able to add extra space – we can’t do that in Amsterdam,” she said.

“So we are urging exhibitors that are considering attending to book up soon.”

Visitor registration for Fespa Digital opened this week. McGuinness said it’s too early to predict visitor numbers, but she was optimistic based on early feedback that the show could build on the 16,700 visitors at Munich.

“Based on the excitement we’ve picked up on from every market about the event being in Amsterdam, and off the back of the success of the last two shows, people are really excited about the prospects and we’re always looking to increase our visitor numbers,” she added.

With this in mind, following positive feedback from this year’s Fespa Global Expo in Cologne, Printeriors will have its own dedicated space in Amsterdam, featuring a cafe and exhibitors, as well as a one-day conference on day three (10 March).

The Fespa Awards gala dinner will take place on 9 March.

The opening day of the show (8 March) will also host the Fespa Digital Textile conference.
“We’ve got such a strong textile community that it deserves its own day-long event to serve that in depth,” said McGuinness.

Fespa Digital will also play host to regular features such as educational content and workshops on the show floor as well as the Wrap Cup.

“Amsterdam is a European trend and design centre and we expect the show to bounce off that, and it also has one of the world’s major hub airports, so it's ideal for international visitors,” said McGuinness.

For more information, visit the Fespa Digital website.