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. The last and the final India roadshow will be held in Delhi on November 28.
Sabine Geldermann, director, drupa and global head print technologies, Messe Düsseldorf Gmbh said the first leg of the drupa 2020 roadshow kicked off in South America from Chile and then moved to North America. The Chennai roadshow was the start of the second leg of the drupa 2020 roadshow and in this leg, eight more Asian countries will be covered. From India, the drupa 2020 roadshow will move to Nepal, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. It will then move to North Africa and then Russia.
“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.
As per Geldermann, in addition to the graphics industry, drupa is also focusing on packaging, industrial printing, additive manufacturing and inkjet. She highlighted the various ‘hotspot(s)’ that will be at drupa 2020, such as drupa cube, dna – drupa next age, touchpoint packaging, touchpoint 3D fab+print and touchpoint textile.
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 KBA.
“Offset printers can see how offset presses are increasingly competing with digital processes, such as short run and fast responses,” Kherodawala said.
He also talked about his experience of drupa visits and said that first-time visitors should plan the visits thoroughly otherwise the scale of the event can be overwhelming. “Prepare your visit well and do not treat it like a sightseeing trip. Decide your focus areas and it will be a fantastic experience,” he 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.
drupa 2020 is scheduled from 16 to 26 June 2020, in Dusseldorf, Germany.
