Visitors and exhibitors can explore areas that deliver an industry-wide opportunity to network and view new technologies.
New to Northprint 2011 will also be the Printers Profit Zone, which will provide a series of free business growth seminars throughout the three days of the show.
The BPIF’s Financial Alliance team of experts will also be hosting a Finance Clinic where printers can drop in for impartial advice on finance and funding, tax issues, M&As and debt recovery.
Trevor Crawford, director of the IIR Print Group, said: "There is without doubt a fresh sense of optimism in the market, and now is the time to move forward and embrace this change."
For the last five years, some 60% of attendees have been from the North of England while around 40% have been from the South.
However, exhibitors at last year's show were badly affected by the economic downturn, which led to absences from Heidelberg, Manroland, KBA and Canon.
Crawford said that Heidelberg hasn't been at the show "for several years", and said that he was currently engaged with a number of companies and was hopeful that they would be at the show.
He said: "Vendors wouldn't want to repeat 2009, but the exhibitors said at the time that they had had a good show.
"We know what was going on with the economic climate in 2009, and the attendance of many shows was in decline that year. Next year, we will be in a different place.
Northprint 2011 will be backed by a marketing campaign to drive visitor registration using IIR's Ipex 2010 visitor database.
IIR will use it to host a special VIP visitor programme to attract printers who are in a position to invest in new technology.
This database is qualified by post-Ipex 2010 visitor analysis statistics, which identified 38% are looking to invest in digital, wide format and inkjet, 19% in post press and finishing equipment, and 16% in offset technology.
Crawford predicted that there is no reason why there shouldn't be up to 4,000 visitors at the event next year, putting it on a par with the last pre-recession show in 2007.
