We have been going to drupa since the 1980s and this will be our tenth visit to this show if we get there. I say this because, at a certain age, one has to think if one more is necessary. Nevertheless, preparations are on, and for seasoned travelers too, one has to plan and budget, find some accommodation, and book flights. For older persons and industry journalists like myself who generally put in about 15,000 steps a day, one has to think of a way to do less, to walk less, and not get carried away by trying to visit one more stand and meet one more friend.
From my recent experience, the visa situation seems okay with plenty of appointments available within two and three-week time frames. Air tickets also seem available at fairly reasonable rates although because there are no direct flights from any Indian city to Dusseldorf, one has to opt for at least a one-stop flight on one of the international flights.
Finnair, Polish Lot, Indigo-Turkish Airlines, Air France, Swiss, KLM, and others have workable solutions. Direct flights from Indian cities to Frankfurt, which is just a one-and-a-half-hour train ride away from Dusseldorf main station, are available on Vistara, Lufthansa, and Air India. Hopefully, Air India may even put one of their new Airbus 350 planes on this route by the last week of May, but you will have to check with them.
Of course, numerous travel agencies are there to help you plan your visit, although some of their plans have fewer days at drupa and more days for sightseeing and visits to some of the other interesting cities and tourist spots of Europe. They can be very helpful with visas and in some cases for those who are very particular about their diet, since they carry along or find special cooks to provide vegetarian meals.
Industry colleagues over the years have called drupa the print olympics and others have called it our industry’s university. In this first blog or article, I will not get into the motivations or expectations of the visitors from India, since they vary according to their business and job function. I will only repeat what I have said several times before.
Technology is a great leveler
Technology is a great leveler – although printers are special citizens of this world since they help create and produce some of the most valuable artifacts such as books, newspapers, signage, (knowledge, information, and propaganda), and packaging – at drupa, big or small, they all become equal to each other.
Individually they are competitive seekers to solutions and also new ideas that may give them an edge in their market. Collectively they embody agility in applying technology for profit and in the drupa environment they are willing to share what they are doing or how they see new technologies since they are speaking to fellow printers from distant markets from which they rarely see a threat and sometimes even see opportunities.
