The Fespa Eurasia event was to take place in December 2020
The FESPA Africa exhibition to be hosted alongside Sign Africa from 9-11 September 2020 at Gallagher Convention Centre in South Africa will be cancelled. This decision was taken due to the current pandemic, restrictions on international travel, and the event industry being closed at the moment in South Africa with no clear indication if it will reopen before the planned dates.
“The planning for these events involves a significant amount of time for both organisers and exhibitors, who in some cases import equipment to showcase and have representatives from their manufacturers on their stand,” said event organiser Dyelan Copeland.
The decision has been made to cancel this year’s expo and reschedule a new date in 2021 to ensure the event will have the required planning from all sides to make it a success. Copeland added that, “The number of online registrations we have had for 2020 indicate that the industry is looking forward to the next event.”
FESPA CEO Neil Felton concluded: “The dynamic development of the coronavirus pandemic globally has unfortunately made it infeasible to proceed with FESPA Africa as planned this autumn, and our focus is on the wellbeing of our visitors, exhibitors and colleagues in South Africa. We look forward to welcoming our African community back in 2021, and hope that next year’s event will play an important role in their sustained business recovery from the impact of COVID-19.”
The postponement of FESPA Africa follows the announcement that the next FESPA Global Print Expo will now take place at the RAI Exhibition Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from 9-12 March 2021.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
