The dramatic move by drupa to move to a three year cycle was forced by the exhibitors themselves, according to the organisers who spoke to the worldwide media last night.
According to drupa the new three-year time schedule is aimed to enable drupa to do a better job of keeping up with the quickening ‘innovation cycle’ that is seeing sweeping changes in new technologies coming into print.
Hans Werner Reinhard, managing director of Messe Düsseldorf says, “We first raised a three year drupa cycle in late 2012, it was then knocked back by the exhibitors, but since then the demand has been rising. Late last year the exhibitors, particularly the smaller and mid-sized and new exhibitors came to us and said they wanted three years, so at our recent committee meeting we agreed.”
It was the bigger companies such as Heidelberg, HP and KBA that were originally against the idea of three years, due to the costs, but since then it has become clear that Ipex with which drupa traditionally alternates would be highly unlikely to take place again, releasing funds from exhibitors, as instead of two European shows every four years they are now looking at one every three years.
During the conference call drupa brushed off the notion that its move will have a major impact on all other trade shows, with Sabine Geldermann, director drupa, only acknowledging there will be some ‘irritation’ among organisers. However the reality is that all other print shows are now facing massive decisions about their viability, structure, timing and format in light of the drupa decision. Ipex is now almost certainly dead, other struggling international shows such as Print will be under even greater pressure. The move will have no impact on the big Chinese shows.
The drupa organiser did not consult with any other trade shows or trade show associations before making its decision, although it did tell them before releasing the news to the trade press.
Werner Reinhard says, “drupa is the global core of print, and a mirror to the market. The move to three years reflects the changing nature of the print business. The 2016 drupa will be broader than ever before with more opportunities and more technology on show. There will be a substantial conference programme, which will mainly be in English and which will be free to visitors.
“It will be an essential event for everyone with a print business.”
The 2016 show will see digital dominating. HP has increased its floorspace and will overtake Heidelberg as the biggest exhibitor, with the whole of the 6,000sqm Hall 17 to itself. EFI is also significantly increasing its size, while Benny Landa will double the size of his already impressive drupa 2012 booth, and if he has a working nano-press on the stand is certain to be the centre of attention. All other digital players will at least maintain the same size as 2012.
In contrast the heavy metal players – the traditional core of the show – are shrinking their spaces. Last week it was revealed that Heidelberg will still be in Hall 1 – and will not take any of Hall 2 – but will be sharing its stand with partners such as Gallus, Polar and Kama. It is not known if manroland will have a press on its stand or opt for its more recent tactic of a concept booth with no press. KBA will be at the 2016 show, as will Komori, but there will be no Mitsubishi as it is now part of the Ryobi business, although there may be the first co-developer Ryobi MHI press on the show, the new B1 press. The plans of the smaller press players such as Hans Gronhi and Akiyama is not yet known.
And the heavy metal players are all getting into bed with digital; the Heidelberg stand will show its B1 sheetfed digital press co-developed with Fujifilm, Komori will show its digital B2 sheetfed press co-developed with Konica Minolta, and it is providing the chassis for the Landa presses, KBA will have its webfed digital RotaJet, manroland may or may not have a press on the stand but if not its folder is certain to be shown on an Oce webfed press, while Ryobi has been developing digital sheetfed and webfed presses with Miyakoshi and will likely have the latest iterations on the stand.
