Highlights 2022 – Part 1: From Düsseldorf to the Whole World

An eventful year lies behind us. We were particularly pleased that we could finally return to business and that the trade fair industry is back on track. While we started the new year digitally, the drupa team quickly headed for the world’s venues again to get the international print community in the mood for drupa 2024 and to discuss trends, expectations and challenges with long-standing and potential exhibitors as well as association delegations.

On- and Offline Exchange with the Industry

Right at the beginning of 2022, drupa Director Sabine Geldermann welcomed representatives of worldwide leaders from the inkjet industry such as FUJIFILM or RICOH at a New Year’s online get-together followed by a New Year Vision Talk Online together with Aki Ohno from Ohno Inkjet Consulting. She not only gave an update on the current status quo of the preparations for the world’s leading trade fair for print and media technologies, but also shared information about the drupa global portfolio. A personal reunion of the long-standing partners finally took place in November when Sabine Geldermann traveled to Japan for several appointments. But more about that later.

First our drupa Director went to the USA to meet Messe Düsseldorf North America’s Eva Rowe at the dscoop conference Edge Rockies, where she socialized and celebrated International Women’s Day together with nine women from leadership positions in the print industry. Furthermore, she was part of the panel discussion of our cherished drupa ambassador Deborah Corn from PrintMediaCentr with the motto #BreaktheBias. Additionally she was a jury member at the Inkspiration Awards ceremony.

The next stop took Sabine Geldermann alongside Malu Sevieri from Emme Intermediação de Negócios, our Brazilian representative office, to Afeigraf’s ExpoPrint Latin America, the most important trade show for the printing industry in South America. The drupa booth and hall tours provided excellent occasions to bond with multiple important brands and partners from the Brazilian print and packaging community. Similar possibilities were offered by FESPA in Berlin and FACHPACK in Nuremberg.

At the general meeting of the VDMA Printing and Paper Technology Association at Windmöller & Hölscher our partner association elected a new board of directors for the upcoming four years and gave insights into topics such as digital transformation, sustainability and new business models that will also play a major role at drupa 2024. Sabine Geldermann took the opportunity to direct the attention of the member companies toward drupa 2024. In addition, our drupa Director, together with Malte Seifert (Project Director of decarbXpo, GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESS, NEWCAST) and Friedrich-Georg Kehrer (Global Portfolio Director wire & Tube), accepted the VDMA‘s invitation to their Maschinenbaugipfel (Mechanical Engineering Summit), which focused on mastering industrial change, shaping the future and ensuring competitiveness through cooperation.

After attending Aki Ohno’s first-ever Inkjet Technology Fair with exhibitors such as Epson or Kyocera, where she set out to build bridges between Japan and Europe, Sabine Geldermann stayed a little longer in Japan to visit the International Graphic Arts Show in Tokyo. There, Akiko Ohara and Masahiro Hashiki from Messe Düsseldorf Japan had organized a booth for drupa. The show delivered excellent press talks for the team as well as rewarding conversations with long-standing and important new Japanese key accounts, whose positive feedback already makes us confident about drupa 2024.

Back to the Roots

But back to our home base on the Rhine: Our partner ESMA had invited us to the Industrial Print Integration Conference revolving around the key topics of Technology, Sustainability & Environment and Business-Related Concepts. Industry experts from BASF, Fraunhofer IFAM, Siegwerk, 3M, etc. showcased and explained the disruptive power of print, while visitors were able to explore a world of new manufacturing possibilities in 50 presentations. Incidentally, the European trade association for print manufacturers of screen, digital and flexo technology, which by the way is also one of our partners for the touchpoint textile at drupa 2024, gathered industry experts near one more time: At the Textile Printing & Sustainability Conference – as the name suggests – textile printing, sustainability and automation within the supply chain were on the agenda of the 25 inspiring keynotes.

But before that, it was time for the PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION, which we organized together with the team from the Fachverband Medienproduktion around Rüdiger Maaß, featuring well-known exhibitors such as DATEV, Kodak, Mondi, Xerox and HP.

Not only did the event attract experts from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, but it also inspired new and young target groups for print and packaging. The cooperation with the Fritz-Henßler-Berufskolleg (FHBK) in Dortmund, the Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart, the Akademie für Mode & Design (AMD) Düsseldorf and the Berufskolleg Bachstraße in Düsseldorf is part of a successful series of initiatives for young talents and will be continued. In the case of the FHBK this is done – just as in the run-up to drupa 2020 respectively virtual.drupa – with the development of a poster campaign and an image trailer, while the students of the AMD are going to create unique indoor installations and paper artworks that will be staged in the entrance area of Messe Düsseldorf for drupa 2024.

Overall, the fifth edition of the event format for multi-channel and dialogue marketing, which combines congress and trade fair, recorded a 50 percent increase in participants compared to the previous year and brought nine theme worlds as well as seven highlight projects to the 1,250 attendees. Read more about these cases here:

• Highlight Project Nr. 1: r[h]eingin and Achilles Join Forces to Develop Packaging as Part of PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION’s Highlight Project
• Highlight Project Nr. 2: Geomarketing: How Does it Work? is the Central Question for one of the PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION Highlight Projects
• Highlight Project Nr. 3: Reinterpretation of the Children’s Book “Berggorillas” as PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION Highlight Project Features Customizable Title Page and Lay-Flat Binding
• Highlight Project Nr. 4: The Customized #PrintDigitalCon Diary 2022 Will Upgrade Your Experience! – Video Interview With Thorsten Kinnen About The Highlight Project
• Highlight Project Nr. 5: Sustainable and High-End? It’s Possible Thanks to Koehler Paper and Mühle- Glashütte
• Highlight Project Nr. 6: Multifunctional “All-in-One” Badge at PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION
• Highlight Project Nr. 7: Technology Meets Print: Multisensory Experiences as Highlight Project at PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION

We also use the spotlight on #PrintDigitalCon to announce LEONHARD KURZ as our Platinum Partner for the upcoming edition.

Taking the drupa Message Around the Globe

Also abroad, we offered the industry platforms for knowledge transfer and inspiration. Our global portfolio events kicked off with printpack alger 2022, which took 3.675 trade visitors from 41 countries and 110 exhibitors from 18 countries to Algeria. Maghreb’s largest trade fair for printing and paper technology made a powerful post-pandemic relaunch for the Algerian printing and paper industry – confirmed by the great interest shown by exhibitors, 96% of whom are already looking forward to participating again in the next fair in 2024.

From late summer onwards, the Asian region was the place-to-be for the printing industry. Following the examples of the world’s leading trade fairs K, interpack and drupa, INDOPLAS, INDOPACK and INDOPRINT for the plastics, packaging and printing value chain were held by Messe Düsseldorf Asia and its local partner PT Wahana Kemalaniaga Makmur (WAKENI). With 26 exhibitors from 14 countries and 14.905 visitors from 23 countries, the trade fair trio came to a successful close and will return to Jarkata, Indonesia from 4-7 September 2024. Messe Düsseldorf Asia is also the organizer behind Pack Print Plas Philippines. Together with Global-Link MP Events International, Inc., the team on site brought together the universes of the printing, packaging and plastics industries in Manila.

PACK PRINT INTERNATIONAL and CorruTec ASIA also had a full programme in store. drupa Director Sabine Geldermann did not miss the chance to travel to Thailand to present the two events in a powerful presentation to important representatives of the Thai printing and packaging industry together with colleagues from the interpack team. Besides, she was happy to reunite and connect with representatives and suppliers in print, packaging and finishing and appreciated the opportunity for exchange with key contacts as well as association delegations from India, Mauritius, the Philippines, Singapore and Sri Lanka who are already looking forward to participating at drupa 2024.

The communicative and busy atmosphere of our satellite events were excellent tools to capture the spirit of the local print communities and to enter into a dialogue with them about drupa 2024.

That being said: This timing was quite perfect, as preparations for our upcoming edition are in full swing. Not only has the 2-year countdown to drupa 2024 been running since the middle of the year – starting with the committee meeting at the beginning of the year, we reached many important milestones on the way to drupa 2024 this year. Learn which these are in part 2 of our review of 2022.