The show has booked out its exhibition space, and has achieved record numbers of pre-registrations, with print shop owners from more than 150 countries already booked in to attend.
The threat of ash over the UK receded late Monday, although two London bound Qantas jets were diverted to Frankfurt, but the local weather forecasters predict no more disruption.
Attracting most interest this time around will be the high speed inkjet solutions, with Kodak, HP, Océ, InfoPrint, and Screen among those set to launch commercially available solutions. The volume of cut sheet digital printing will also grow.
However, offset press manufacturers will also be on the front foot. Their focus will be on total print solutions rather than individual products, although these will figure prominently. Heidelberg, for instance, is launching a new B1 press: the CX102. Rival manroland, by contrast has no presses on its booth, concentrating its activities instead on promoting the total solutions message.
Biggest exhibitor this time is HP with 3000sqm, Heidelberg with 2500sqm and Xerox with 2000sqm are number two and three. Canon, Ricoh, Konica Minolta and Océ are also in the top ten.
Trevor Crawford, Ipex 2010 event director says, “Many industry figures consider this Ipex to be the most important in its history: many of the latest innovations will be coming to commercial fruition at Ipex and there have been positive signs that recent adverse economic conditions will begin to ease. As a result, we’d expect that exhibitors’ customers will continue to view Ipex as a major buying and research event.
“With over 1,000 exhibiting companies, visitors will have unrivalled opportunities to see the current and future shape of our industry and plan their investment decisions accordingly. Combined with our many business-focused event features this has built a compelling case as to why companies need to visit Ipex to plan for their futures.”
Ipex will run every day from May 18 to May 25.
