Prior to the show, in the wake of IIR's decision to cancel the UK's Total Print! Expo, organiser GASC warned that "like all shows, the recession has indeed affected us".

However, its decision to tackle waning exhibitor attendance through an incentive scheme was vindicated as the majority of exhibitors reported that, while attendee volumes were down, they saw a higher percentage of key decision makers.

Kevin Joyce, vice-president of sales and marketing at Kodak's Digital Printing Solutions group, said the show had been "considerably busy" and that sales had "exceeded expectations by orders of magnitude". Joyce added that he had found there to be a higher level of optimism about the future.

His comments were echoed by GASC president Ralph Nappi, who said that printers had come with a "laser focus on new technologies" and were "preparing for our industry rebound".

StudioRIP, one of the few UK companies to exhibit at the show, said it had received a high level of interest from
a number of large corporations looking to OEM its eponymous RIP.

"Demonstrations have been in such demand that we were even still showing a customer our product when the lights went off at the end of one day," said sales director Andy Hemmings.

Key themes at the show included inkjet and workflow, echoing the main areas of interest at last year's Drupa.

Agfa's manager of marketing communications, La Toya Hodge, added: "Inkjet is one of the biggest themes here. The message that print is dead is overblown."

See next week's PrintWeek for more on Print 09