Event organiser Peter Harper told ProPrint: “It went really well. Everyone was extremely pleased. A hell of a lot of business was written.”

He added that exhibitors had praised the quality of the visitors. “One thing most people said was that the quality of business was very good – there were very few ‘tyre-kickers’.”

Overall numbers were down on the last Gold Coast outing two years ago, from 1,775 in 2008 to 1,550 this year.

However, Harper said this was primarily due to the timing of the show – the 2008 event had been scheduled during the school holidays, which meant there were groups of families.

ProPrint attended the first day of the two-day show, and spoke to a number of number of exhibitors who had already clinched sales.

On Friday, Roland DG sales & marketing manager John Wall told ProPrint: “I’ve been surprised by the quality. We’ve sold a couple of machines already.”

Over on the Océ stand, business development manager Darren Massey said: “There’s been a lot of interest in UV. A lot of solvent companies are looking to move into UV thanks to the savings in media and time.”

Fujifilm’s Patrick Koen said the vendor’s three key things at Visual Impact were the new Acuity Advance HS, its Mutoh textile machine, and dye-sublimation, which was especially strong in Queensland.

“The big thing with the Acuity is speed. It’s our hot new machine,” added Koen.

Harper said today that the outcome boded well for the Sydney Visual Impact Image Expo, set to be held at Darling Harbour from 20 to 22 September.

“Because we are co-locating with GASAA, POPAI and Retail 2010, we think we’ll have a bumper of a show,” said Harper.

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