The answer is yes, but it’s not a question of geography. It’s what’s going to be inside the halls that will really matter and will ultimately dictate whether people attend or not.

If you don’t go to an event because you believe transport is going to be pain, even though you think that there will be ideas and new technology present that you really need to see, then more fool you.

A show lives and dies by the range of innovations on display, but in the same breath it needs to attract end users as well as printers – and with the best will in the world, would you really not be slightly embarrassed to take customers to the NEC?

It’s got nothing to do with Birmingham itself, which has undergone an incredible transformation in the past decade; it’s the NEC that is the problem. The venue is tired, the halls are past their sell-by date and the layout is far from ideal – if we want to promote print as a dynamic, creative industry, then relocating to more modern facilities is really the only option.

That’s not to say that success is assured. London is expensive, its transport infrastructure can be incredibly frustrating and Informa needs to make good on its promise to turn this corner of Docklands into a real print village.

But I’ve no doubt Excel will attract more international visitors and cement the show’s place on the global stage and this will ensure that exhibitors pull out all the stops to make Ipex 2014 a must-visit event – and that’s got to be good news for UK printers.

Darryl Danielli is editor of PrintWeek