The world’s biggest trade show drupa will switch from a four year to a three-year cycle, in a move which has potential implications for Aussie print trade shows PacPrint and PrintEx.
Following the 2016 event drupa shows are now scheduled for May 2019, 2022 and 2025. Ordinarily PrintEx would be slated for May 2019 and PacPrint for May 2025, but they will be unable to compete with drupa, which will cause some deep thinking by the local show organisers.
Options could include keeping the current cycle for PacPrint and PrintEx but moving the shows to September/October, or running the shows in following years rather than every two years, and missing the drupa year.
Other major print shows including Igas, ChinaPrint and Print in the US will also be impacted by the move, the next-but-one Igas is due to take place in 2019, exhibitors will baulk at two major shows in one year..
The change by drupa to three years was first mooted two years ago with a proposed 2015 date, but was rejected by exhibitors at the time, particularly the larger ones concerned about their costs.
Heidelberg, KBA and HP all came out strongly against a move to three years, however Benny Landa outed himself as a major backer of a three year show. At the time drupa said the mid-sized exhibitors were mainly in favour of the three year term and were ‘disappointed’ that the staus quo was maintained.
Since then the rapidly changing print landscape has hastened the move, with drupa keen to capitalise on new technologies that want exhibition time, and as the former heavy metal giants of the industry downsize their businesses, and their stand space.
Other factors would have been the demise of Ipex, with which drupa alternated, and local hospitality businesses in Dusseldorf have also been pressurising drupa – which is held in the Council-owned Messe Centre – to move to a three year cycle.
The 2016 show has its number of days reduced, down to 11 with only one weekend, from the 14 or 15 days it has been. No word yet on the number of days for the three year shows, but they are unlikely to revert back to 15.
This decision to switch to three years was taken by the drupa committee yesterday in Düsseldorf. Claus Bolza-Schünemann, chairman of the drupa Advisory Board and president of KBA says: “The entire print process chain has changed radically because of the internet and digital technologies."
"New applications and solutions are developing and opening up new fields of business. At the same time, there is more focus on innovative technologies, such as 3D printing, printed electronics and functional printing," he says.
"It is more important than ever before that our customers have an overview of the latest technology, and are also inspired to use new business models and solutions. drupa is the only specialist trade fair in the world to offer this– and will do so every three years in the future.”
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