While it had a smaller footprint than pre-pandemic affairs, hosting "around 100 companies and brands” in Hall 2 of Birmingham’s NEC, it was largely felt to be a success.

The show attracted almost 4,000 visitors in total and everyone that Printweek spoke to on the three-day show’s final day yesterday (24 March) was happy about their experiences at the event and the anticipated returns set to come.

Major product launches were thin on the ground – with many likely being saved for Fespa’s Global Print Expo in Berlin in two months’ time – but there were some notable debuts, from the likes of Roland DG and Trotec, which Printweek will cover in greater detail next week.

Many other exhibitors were hosting either trade show debuts or UK first outings of products released during the pandemic that they haven’t had a chance to demonstrate in public until now. Exclusive UK Mimaki distributor, Hybrid Services, for example, handed Mimaki’s JFX600-2513 LED-UV large-format flatbed inkjet printer its UK and Ireland debut at the show.

The event, which encompasses décor, design, display, print and signage, last took place in March 2019.

While several major wide-format suppliers and manufacturers were absent, those that did attend were pleased to have the opportunity to meet with customers in person again. Several satisfied first-time exhibitors were also dotted around Hall 2.

New features this year included the SDUK Explains Lounge, which provided information on developing revenue ideas as well as general business advice for those in the sector.

Meanwhile, the Hexis Wrap Battle, which saw the UK’s top wrapping talent compete to be crowned the UK’s best, returned and drew a large crowd as it came to a head late yesterday.

SDUK event director Jenny Matthew told Printweek: “It’s been brilliant. You come into it with some trepidation because of Covid and what’s going on in the world, but it’s just been phenomenal. It’s had a really happy vibe; it’s a lovely industry to work in anyway but I think people are happy to be back, face-to-face, and seeing stuff properly. The feedback that I’ve had from exhibitors and visitors has been brilliant and I think it’s just that, as an industry, we’ve missed each other.

“Lots of deals have been done, and a lot of big bits of kit have been sold so it’s been amazing. I think everyone has put a lot of effort in – it’s been such a journey these last two years, because we’ve been rolling the show, and to finally deliver it makes me very proud.

“The driver behind the focus for the show this year with the buying audience is ‘how can you make your business work better for you?’ and in the SDUK Explains Lounge we’ve had those very sessions. Personalisation has been a big thing, and sustainability is another big area we’ve been pushing this year.”

She added: “We've got a fabulous rebooked floorplan, and that's the sign of a good show. We've got companies that have upgraded their stands, and I can't be more pleased.”

Next year's show will take place in Hall 2 at the NEC from 21 to 23 March 2023.

Exhibitor reactions:

Dean Anderson, sales development manager, eProductivity Software (ePS)
“It’s been really good, we’ve been really surprised. This is a new show for us, and you never know what it will be like, but it was a good punt for us. Part of the reason for exhibiting is about spreading the word about the business but we’ve also got some new features in our system for the wide-format market, for example around material usage optimisation, which has made a lot of difference.”

Paul Bromley, EMEA sales manager, PrintIQ
“It’s been fantastic for us, the amount of leads we’ve had has way superseded what we thought it would. Numbers-wise we’re looking at around 75 to 80. Based on customer feedback, everyone has attended the show knowing what they’re looking for, so it’s not a case where people are wandering around – it’s targeted and they had us on their list. They’re facing challenges with their current systems – they’re not cloud-based or they’re lacking certain functionality that they need – so we’ve done demos for a lot of people.”

Lewis Evans, sales and product manager, Vivid Laminating Technologies
“We launched the Zip Core Packaging Suite at the show, and we sold two or three yesterday and one just now with a VeloBlade – it’s been amazing. The quality of visitors has been really good – there are a lot of people I know, and business owners and decision-makers are walking around. March is so many people’s year end, so they’ve got money to spend and they’re here and looking to spend it to try and get their business growing.”

Peter Gunning, CEO, Grafenia
“It was really good. Obviously smaller than the last time, but good footfall. We were showing [workflow tool] WorksThing for the first time. We got a load of free trial signups and it was good to get validation that it’s what people need.”

Sung Ho Park, director, Space Tailor
“It’s been a great success for us and very exciting, there are more people visiting than I expected – I thought due to Covid-19 people may not come but it was not true. They have shown interest in our products [fabric window covering films], which I love to see. 400 people came to my booth and around 20% of those have enquired or sent me an email so I think it’s been very successful.”

Joey Kim, sales and managing director, InkTec Europe
“When everybody booked the stand they are not sure whether it’s a good idea or not, but we are quite excited and happy for the result and we’ve seen many old friends and customers visit us to sit down and talk about how they have been, so it’s been a good chance to catch up. And while we’ve been talking, we’ve found that many are looking to reinvest.”

Brendan Perring, general manager, IPIA
“We’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the level of engagement. The footfall has been really good overall, I think a lot of people were worried about whether people would come back to trade shows after Covid but that myth has now been dispelled – people really want to get back and get back to business. In previous years a lot of the machines and samples on show have been all about volume and punching out lots of solvent prints, banner printing and so forth. But this year, on almost every stand that’s got kit or vinyl on it, it's all about speciality; doing something unique, different and value-added.”