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Suddenly, the print industry seems a much sunnier place – and not just because summer has finally arrived. The curtain of doom and gloom that has shrouded print in the past two years appeared to have lifted last month at Ipex, where you’d be hard pressed to find an exhibitor that didn’t have a good show. Fespa will be hoping that this momentum carries through to the end of this month.
Running from 22-26 June, Fespa appears to have come along at exactly the right time. With confidence returning to the market, the hope is that visitors will be serious about investing in the latest wide-format equipment. But this year’s show in Munich is about more than just selling kit. It aims to help a business move on, address green issues and find profit to enable them to move away from being a commodity service. In a word, Fespa 2010 is about innovation.
The way forward is to support printers in the way they do business, says Frazer Chesterman, Fespa managing director. We need to get them away from being simply print providers, the dinosaur view of the world, and they need to go to their customers and say ‘I will help you to sell more products’. This can be through creative print or using different forms of finishing. But they need to be going to their customers and pushing them.
Chesterman admits that he’s evangelical about this point and that’s why innovation is the driving theme of the show. If a printer can demonstrate it can innovate to customers, he believes, there should be a positive knock-on effect for the whole industry. And Chesterman says it starts with the equipment manufacturers themselves, who should be challenging printers to greater heights.
Pushed further
The quality of print is getting better as are speeds, he says. I think our industry is becoming more like IT – it’s the kind of environment where customers are being pushed by the developers.
That’s certainly the case in the digital print sector and Chesterman was encouraged by the sight of busy stands in this segment at Ipex. Halls 10, 11 and 12 at the NEC were boosted by what he felt was a real buzz, with established players such as HP, Canon, Epson, Mimaki, Xerox and Fuji all benefiting from a rush of interest.
It was interesting going to the HP stand at the show and finding that the sign and graphics area was particularly busy, adds Chesterman.
There will be a slightly different set of visitors at Fespa; like Ipex it will be one of an international flavour, but it will not dominated by English speaking countries or regions. Up to 140 countries are likely to be represented and, at the moment, pre-registration stands at around the 20,000 mark.
It’s the largest wide-format event in the world and the visitor numbers tend to be similar to Ipex, says Chesterman. But we do get a very different kind of audience. At the last show [in 2007], a third of visitors came from Germany, followed by Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium and then the UK.
The 2007 event in Berlin was attended by 37,000 visitors and was followed up with last year’s Fespa Digital in Amsterdam. It is the innovations in digital print that are driving interest again this year.
Digital highlights for the 2010 event include the German launch of Océ’s latest addition to its Arizona printer family, while Epson will demonstrate how its Micro Piezo digital inkjet products can create high quality graphics on a variety of substrates.
While it’s acknowledged that Ipex and Fespa cater for different audiences, the hope from exhibitors must be that the momentum from Birmingham’s NEC finds its way into the halls of Messe Munich, and that it manifests itself in investments in the very latest wide-format technology products.
WHAT'S ON?
Fespa Planet Friendly Summit
24 June
Sessions will cover:
? The drivers for implementing sustainable practices in your business
? Case study from a leading printer
? Overview of what corporate customers are looking for in sustainability terms
? Insight into forthcoming legislation from the European Union
Innovate Keynote session
22 June
Nils Müller of TrendOne will deliver a high energy keynote session about the future of the printed world. Augmented reality and embedded visual content are just some of the features of this future vision. The address will be screened around the show
The Great Innovation Debate
22 June
Situated in Hall A1, stand 269, the event takes place from 1pm until 2pm. Chaired by Duncan Macowan, Fespa conference and events manager, panellists include Marcus Timson, Fespa sales and marketing director, and Lascelle Barrow, joint managing director at Augustus Martin and Fespa board member
European Sign Summit
23 June
Signage applications will be the focus of this event organised by Fespa in partnership with the European Sign Federation
Fespa Wrap Cup
22-25 June
Running in Hall B3, the Wrap Cup will showcase the brightest and best in vehicle decoration. Sponsored by Avery Dennison, 64 teams from Europe will compete for prizes culminating in a showdown on the last day of the exhibition
Fespa 2010 Awards ceremony
24 June
The gallery of entries will be presented in the main lobby area of the show with the winners announced on 24 June. The winners will be invited to the Fespa Gala Night on 25 June
Digital and Screen and Fabric Innovation Theatres
Location: Digital Innovation Theatre, Hall B3; Screen & Fabric Innovation Theatre, Hall A1
Times: Sessions run from 11am daily until 4pm. After 4pm Fespa will show live World Cup games in the Screen and Fabric Innovation Theatre
