Following close consultation with exhibitors and partners, the 2021 edition of drupa, the world’s leading trade fair for Printing Technologies, will be canceled due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The next event will take place as scheduled from 28 May to 7 June 2024. To maintain the momentum until then, the organizers will be holding a four-day digital event titled ‘virtual.drupa’ to take place from 20 to 23 April 2021 during the time frame drupa was originally scheduled for. A press release to this effect reaches us in the evening of 3 December 2020 in New Delhi.
“The pandemic has caused a great deal of uncertainty among exhibitors and visitors in terms of their attendance at drupa 2021. Travel restrictions and budget constraints have further exacerbated the situation in the printing industry,” explains Erhard Wienkamp, COO at Messe Düsseldorf. “We have taken this decision in consultation with our partners, who are entirely supportive of it. It was preceded by a detailed process of considering the current conditions and the needs of the industry.”
Sabine Geldermann, Project director Print Technologies, adds, “Our primary goal remains to support the industry in any way we can to keep in contact at a national and international level, further develop their network and generate leads. To this end, we will be holding an interim event from 20 to 23 April, providing our exhibitors and visitors with an additional sales channel and allowing them to make reliable plans.”
Claus Bolza-Schünemann, chairman at König & Bauer and president of drupa, welcomes this approach, “A virtual event is exactly the right format in the current time,” he says. “Attending drupa under the usual parameters was just too great a risk for many exhibitors, given declining export and turnover figures, as well as significant travel restrictions, which would also affect visitors. The new digital forum is a virtual platform, providing a reliable pillar and an opportunity to maintain valuable communications within the industry until 2024.”
Launched in October, the drupa preview platform already offers an impression of what ‘virtual.drupa’ will look like. It will give companies the opportunity to showcase themselves and their innovations virtually, as well as maintain existing contacts and establish new ones via the matchmaking feature. In addition, the conference schedule of the five drupa hot spots will provide key incentives and set the agenda for an online transfer of knowledge. For instance, international speakers from vertical markets will present success stories of Future Technologies in the Cube, outlining the future of our industry.
“Our members are telling us, that trade fairs to drive their business forward are still in great demand. The value and appeal of drupa remain intact. The decision to suspend it in 2021 is entirely down to the pandemic”, stresses Dr Markus Heering, Managing Director of the VDMA Printing and Paper Technology Association. “In the long run, it is important for all of us to maintain drupa as an international platform in Europe, as it displays the diversity of our industry. 200 years of expertise are rooted in Europe and must continue. However, we welcome the introduction of the new digital platform as an interim solution until 2024.”
The printing industry continues to fully back its leading global trade fair, whose international reach remains unbroken. As a platform demanding open and competitive market comparison, it is a driving force for innovation, benefiting exhibitors, and visitors in equal measure. Through direct contact, people can experience and compare technology trends and innovations and discover new synergies.
Replicating its impetus, selling power, and unique atmosphere, as well as the ability to exchange ideas with like-minded industry colleagues and nurture relationships, has certain limits when conducted in an online format. The organizers are aiming to satisfy this demand with ‘virtual.drupa’ as well as the annual ‘Print & Digital Convention’ in Düsseldorf, which was developed in cooperation with the Fachverband Medienproduktion e.V. (fmp), until drupa returns as a live event in 2024 with new, valuable parameters and hybrid propositions.
“Today’s decision to cancel drupa 2021 and present it in a different format has been an event- and industry-specific one”, Wienkamp concludes. “Messe Düsseldorf remains in close contact with the authorities and its partners of all other events, and we will evaluate the circumstances in a timely manner to take the responsible decision.”
A drupa Q&A is available at www.drupa.com
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.
– Naresh Khanna
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