Heidelberg has confirmed its attendance for drupa 2016 amongst other heavy hitter suppliers, prompting celebration from organisers who say the show is ‘set for success.’ While the German giant usually takes the whole of Hall 1 it has not confirmed the arrangements for 2016, other than giving its ‘full backing.’ Harald Weimer, executive board member of Heidelberg and member of the drupa committee, suggests that the company’s drupa presence may reflect its changes of recent years.
Heidelberg on board: Harald Weimer
Weimer says, “drupa 2016 will be an interesting milestone for us to present our integrated offset and digital technologies with the corresponding services and consumables – in a new dimension. “In line with present market requirements we will be demonstrating solutions alongside our partners in Düsseldorf.” KBA is also locked in to exhibit, despite its recent cost reductions and restructuring, as are Kodak, Mimaki, HP, EFI, Konica Minolta and Landa Nanographic Printing. Landa says it will double its stand space to some 2600sqm in 2016. In 2012 it launched its Nanographic Printing at drupa; vice president of marketing Ila Bialystok says the next show “will be another historic milestone on the road to the digitisation of the printing industry.” Manroland Sheetfed will also be exhibiting, but whether it will have a press at its stand is up in the air, with new owner Tony Langley on record as stating his scepticism of the value of exhibitions. Organisers say the 19 trade fair halls are now 80 per cent subscribed, and will be structured according to industry areas and topics. This will include the drupa innovation park, the drupa cube and special shows called ‘touch points’ theme parks, which will focus more heavily this time on nascent technologies and markets such as printed electronics, 3D print and inkjet printing with its industrial applications. These technologies are driving the market forward and are opening up opportunities and growth potential worldwide, says drupa, primarily in the fields of packaging, functional and industrial printing.
Werner M Dornscheidt, president of Messe Dusseldorf
Crossmedia and multichannel communications, big data, web-to-print and variable data, augmented reality and QR codes, are also areas of focus for 2016, reflecting the show’s motto, ‘touch the future.’ Francois Martin, worldwide marketing director with HP’s Graphics Solutions Business, says, “Communication between people is evolving just as quickly as technology. “The new crossmedia strategy at drupa with the integration of digital and analogue printing as well as print and online will show that the printed product continues to play a key role in communications. “Change in an industry requires courage and firm decisions. The realignment does exactly that and I hope that everyone realises that a new journey is beginning. The new drupa stands for effective and sustainable communication in a social, mobile and cloud-based world.” The first exhibitor list will be published online in September 2015. Organisers hope to see the show sell out once again, as they say every drupa event has done so in the past 60 years of its history.
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