The virtual.drupa exhibition space promises product innovations and insights, according to organisers.
From April 20-23, the global print and packaging community will meet online at virtual.drupa. It features the three pillars: Conference Area, Networking Plaza, and Exhibition Space. These aim to promote knowledge transfer and networking and to activate business through product innovations and insights.
The Exhibition Space reflects the diverse technologies and applications along the value chain of the print and packaging industry. It aims to give visitors a comprehensive overview of the product portfolios and innovations of the exhibiting companies. Explanatory videos and live web sessions will provide additional details and information about the exhibited products and services.
Product innovations and insights
Visitors can use the navigation in the Exhibition Space to quickly find exhibitors. In addition to direct entry of the company name, they can filter the search by product category or country.
Individual exhibitor profiles provide information on the company, contact persons, products, services, innovations and presentation formats. At this point, visitors can make direct contact with the exhibitor via a digital business card or matchmaking.
Live web sessions
Exhibitors can interact with the community in live web sessions, presenting their agenda on relevant content. Visitors can get an overview of the various presentations in the event database, using filters by event slots or topics. Content includes digital printing applications and automated workflows; innovations in flexo and inkjet printing; as well as sustainable packaging solutions.
The virtual.drupa event partners will make major contributions to this. They include Kurz, DuPont de Nemours, EFI, Kodak, Komori, BlueCrest, CloudLab, Fujifilm, Hybrid Software, Koenig & Bauer, Mimaki, OQChemicals and Xeikon. Organisers will make all live web sessions available later on demand. This will make it easier for visitors who cannot attend live due to time differences.
Industry relevance
Visitors already have the opportunity to take a look at the current exhibitor profiles and orient themselves for virtual.drupa. Together, the companies represent the diversity of the industry in their online showrooms and web sessions.
Sam Ponzo, vice president, Industrial Solutions at DuPont de Nemours, says, “DuPont will present our latest innovations. So, we will show the Cyrel Solutions flexographic systems and Artistri digital inks for textile and industrial applications. These will take place in the online showroom and during interactive live web sessions.”
Hiroaki Shimosaka, general manager graphic systems business at Fujifilm, says, “Fujifilm will present new innovative products in both conventional and digital processes. In addition, with our innovative products we demonstrate our commitment to the graphic arts industry and prove that we are a long-standing partner for our global customers.”
Filip Weymans, vice president for marketing at Xeikon, says, “We will be demonstrating mainly applications that involve digital print manufacturing, but not just solutions for digital printing. We will show solutions that fit in a manufacturing process and can be connected in other steps in a manufacturing process. As a result, you can achieve flexibility. That is how you address the questions and challenges that lie ahead of you and your business.”
Joint exhibitors
Esko and Enfocus will jointly exhibit. Wim Fransen, vice president for global marketing and software product management at Esko, says, “virtual.drupa will provide the perfect forum for us to showcase our next generation technology developments for the packaging industry. So, through a number of webinars, videos and presentations, we will share our latest software releases. We will also launch our new cloud freedom strategy.
“We will show the move from onsite server-based software applications to cloud-hosted service as a subscription software models. This offers benefits for our packaging, labels and wide format prepress and converter customers. We will share examples of Esko software solutions that now have both models available and providing insight to the advantages of utilizing the Esko cloud.
“Notably, virtual.drupa will also be the platform where we will unveil the results of our collaboration with Asahi Photoproducts, which was announced last year. The companies have been working together on the development of a new automated flexo platemaking solution and April 21st sees both companies come together to reveal the breakthrough technology.
Packaging trends
The Esko team will deliver a webinar on 2021 Packaging trends and the need for a more efficient future. Stephen Kaufman, vice president business development and strategy for packaging and colour, will discuss the impact of ecommerce. Esko will discuss new and emerging consumer trends. It will show how brands can adapt through investment in the right packaging software technology.
Tomas Van Rossom, general manager of Enfocus, adds, “It’s an exciting time for Enfocus and drupa is always a superb opportunity to connect with our customers, old and new. This year we will unveil the benefits of our new software solution. It empowers customer facing staff to quickly inspect incoming PDF files for showstopping issues in print.
“We will showcase Switch, the print automation rebel movement, which delivers an open workflow automation platform. It removes the constraints on print professionals who don’t want to adapt to vendor specific, workflow solutions. On top of these launches, we’re demonstrating PitStop Server as an entry level automation solution. We will also show our software version updates for PitStop Pro, PitStop Server, Switch and Connect 2021. It is clear we’ll have a great Enfocus line up to show at virtual.drupa.”
Click here to register free for the event.
