From the opening bell with large crowds waiting in the foyer, to the
close when crowds had to be pushed out at 4pm on Saturday the show was
abuzz with printers. By the end of the exhibition 11,148 visitors had
passed through the doors, representing a 7.3 percent increase over
PrintEx03 on the previous show four years ago. The only thin time was
the evening shift on Thursday, by 7pm PrintEx was virtually deserted,
leaving exhibitors to twiddle their thumbs for two hours.
Most of the 180+ exhibitors were well pleased with the show,
variously describing it as 'three times better than last time', 'better
than Pacprint' and 'marvellous'. Indeed some of the major players will
be considering asking the organiser for a four day show next time, as
the costs, particularly for the magnificent seven major exhibitors of
Heidelberg, Currie, Cyber, Fuji Xerox, Canon, Agfa and HP will not be
much greater than three days. However as PrintEx began as a show for
smaller suppliers there is sure to be vigorous debate.
The new Forums, which had non-industry commentators Peter FitzSimons
and Jenny Brockie leading debates on the future and digitalisation
respectively, were similarly successful, with standing room only.
Australian Printer produced the show's only daily newsletter, which
was written and printed live each day, with Konica Minolta, Oce and
Fuji Xerox each printing a 2,000 run four page issue.
New technology highlights included the Heidelberg Anicolor inking
and dampening, the giant HP Scitex TurboJet, the Canon imagePRESS, the
Fuji Xerox / Adobe / Typefi / GBC book in an hour, but many stands had
new technology solutions on show.
The growing importance of PrintEx was highlighted by HP bringing
some 15 journalists from India, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore to see the
launch of the new DesignJet Z6100, the first time PrintEx has been used
for a regional launch, and the first time overseas journalists have
been at an Australian print show.
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