Messe Dusseldorf India organized the third and final drupa 2020 roadshow in India in New Delhi on 28 November 2019. While the first leg of the roadshow took place in the Americas, the second leg started in India, covering Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi. The drupa 2020 team now moves on to Nepal, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand, which will be followed by roadshows in Russia and North Africa.
Sabine Geldermann, director – drupa & Global head Printing Technologies at Messe Dusseldorf, said, “We can expect that drupa 2020 is going to be the global platform for the print industry in 2020. Since its foundation in 1951, drupa always stood for providing an impetus for the industry as well as orientation. We’re doing all that we can to underline the global positioning of the event and to make sure that all the visitors to the event have an unbelievable experience and a very valuable stay in Dusseldorf.
“On a global level, we need to be more sustainable, and we have to make our approach of being much more careful with both nature as well as our processes. . . . There will be several focus areas at drupa 2020, including drupa cube, dna – drupa next age, touchpoint packaging, touchpoint 3D fab + print, and touchpoint textile. Inkjet will be an important focus area of drupa 2020 as will textiles . . . many of our traditional companies and exhibitors will show many more textile applications at drupa.”
DNA (drupa next age) is an incubator for new technologies. Geldermann said that her team is inviting start-ups as well as traditional companies to talk about future trends and cutting-edge technologies. Located in Hall 7 (where the drupa innovation parc used to be), the DNA arena will have not only exhibitors but also a stage for brand owners to deliver their experience and vision in the conference programs.
Touchpoint packaging implemented for the first time in drupa 2016 will be one of the big highlights of drupa 2020. Touchpoint packaging will display the latest solutions and applications and show how future packaging and design will deliver additional value, stimuli and growth opportunities in a fast-changing world. The Active and Intelligent Packaging Industry Association will play its part in this effort. Geldermann concluded by urging people to stay connected to the drupa team for further updates by regularly visiting the drupa website and through the drupa application.
Markus Heering, managing director of Print Promotion and VDMA’s Printing and Paper Technology Association, began by addressing the challenges in the print industry. He said that while the highlight at drupa has been digitalization for a long time, now this focus is shifting to artificial intelligence. On the importance of web to print services, he said, “In Europe, all online printers use 90% of offset technology instead of inkjet. They run the technology in a very efficient and effective way. As they are always connected and are always in contact with the customer, they can offer more transparency to their customers, who can easily know the status of their order. In Europe, the online sector in printing is booming, and some of the most successful printers have an annual growth rate of 10% to 15% every year. Traditional printers have more or less disappeared from the market due to the success of online print service providers.” This transformation, he believes, is the next big thing in the printing industry.
Dibyajyoti Kalita, president of All India Federation of Master Printers, and Kamal Chopra, general secretary of the Offset Printers’ Association, delivered the message loud and clear to printers to again take part in numbers at drupa 2020. Speaking at the end, adaptability, transformation, learning and envisioning the future were also echoed by Rajendrakumar Anayath.
Drupa 2020 roadshow in Mumbai
Messe Düsseldorf India organized a drupa 2020 roadshow in Mumbai on 26 November at the Taj Mahal Hotel, which was attended by more than 100 delegates. The Mumbai roadshow was the second drupa 2020 roadshow in India with the first, which was held in Chennai on 25 November.
“Asia in general has been playing a very important role for drupa for many years now,” Geldermann said. Talking about Indian presence at drupa, Geldermann said that India has always been well represented at the show and during drupa 2016, almost 20,000 Indian visitors came to the show. She hoped that a similar number will visit drupa 2020 as well.
Iqbal Kherodawala of Printline Reproductions, and also honorary secretary of Bombay Master Printers Association, said that drupa has always been very important to the Indian printing industry, which is attested from the fact that close to 20,000 visitors went to drupa in 2016.
He said that visitors should look out for new technologies, especially in the fields of packaging, textile printing, inkjet printing and intelligent automation. For offset printers, he said that they should look out for latest developments in digital printing. However, he stressed that digital printing will become a very important vertical in the Indian printing industry, offset printing will remain extremely relevant and Indian offset printers should also look out for latest solutions from companies like Heidelberg, Komori, Mitsubishi and K&B.
“Offset printers can see how offset presses are increasingly competing with digital processes, such as short run and fast responses,” Kherodawala said.
Tushar Dhote of Dhote Offset Technokrafts and president of Mumbai Mudrak Sangh also spoke about his experience during visits to drupa, especially his first visit almost 20 years ago, and echoed Kherodawala’s sentiment that first-time visitors need to prepare well.
At the conclusion, Dhote informed the audience that Messe Düsseldorf has tied up with Red Carpet Tours as its official travel partner.
