In reality, however, while the ‘D’ word might be on everyone’s lips, it’ll probably be insufficiently contagious to spark an epidemic of actual foot-slogging and gawking. The Germans may have ways of making you walk, but good old British reserve (AKA inertia) is unlikely to be enough to get our backsides on the plane.

Apparently, we have enough trouble making it to Ipex, so, despite the lure of faster, slicker, more cost-effective kit, don’t expect to see too many knotted handkerchiefs or daringly rolled trouser legs outside the halls.

This is a shame, because any chance of a close encounter of the vorsprung durch technik kind is always worth the effort. That said, it’s man, not machine, that truly drives this industry along. Here are a couple of examples of home-grown human ingenuity on the finishing front that you won’t find on a double-decker stand.

Having already set up a hand-finishing operation in Hong Kong some years ago, greetings card specialist Sherwood Press has brought the business closer to home through a joint-venture operation in Gdansk – courtesy in part of its closest competitor, Loudwater, having earlier tried and failed through the same set-up. Offshoring, lower labour costs: heard it all before, and so what? Well, so plenty. Aside from collaring additional time-sensitive work that would otherwise have been turned away, Sherwood has taken the unprecedented step of making its Polish facility available to the trade at large, and even to existing clients at parity rates.

“The initial reaction from our competitors was: ‘Why?’” says commercial director Richard Bacon. “But to us it was obvious: we need the volume to make the business grow.” That could equate to £3m in incremental revenue by year-end, sufficient to fuel an extension into automated finishing and fulfilment in a region where it is a rarity.

Also evolving its trading persona is Celloglas. With laminating over the £100,000-per-year level increasingly being done in-house, the firm, owned by US private equity house Berggruen, is now also supplying material rather than service to some ex-customers.

Midway through a two-year sole-supply deal, Celloglas also has high hopes of running its recyclable wood-pulp derivative CelloGreen exclusively through its 14 UK sites by 2012. Tellingly, sales and marketing director Steve Middleton isn’t relying upon outsourcing commodity-oriented commercial printers to get the eco-message across. Instead, he’s back-selling it himself, with mounting success, direct to end-users such as HSBC, for which the notion of a 60% more expensive laminate that’ll end up within printer’s waste rather than burden the landfill is proving to be PR gold in terms of demonstrable CSR.

So, finally, see you, or not, in Düsseldorf. Sadly, one Drupa favourite will be missing; The Front Page piano bar recently closed its Altstadt doors. Was there a finer end to a day at the Messe than hearing Harald Rehbock – the self-styled ‘Frank Sinatra of the Rhine’ – torture a fiercely loyal audience with his rendition of New York, New York? Ah well, at least I’ve got the CD.