CHICAGO — September 17, 2019 — The drupa Word Tour 2019/2020 started on September 10, 2019, in Mexico City and will continue until spring 2020. In September alone, seven more conferences and events will follow in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Until April 2020, events will take place in 12 Asian countries, the United States, Eastern Europe, several European Union countries and North Africa. A total of 35 trips to 27 countries worldwide are currently planned. The organizers of the drupa world tour are Messe Düsseldorf and PrintPromotion.
“We are looking forward to exciting meetings with industry experts, journalists and representatives of local media partners, industry and trade associations,” said drupa Director Sabine Geldermann. High-ranking delegations consisting of the CEOs of various printing press manufacturers and leading representatives of PrintPromotion and Messe Düsseldorf will present the most important trends in printing and paper technology, present innovations in the graphics industry and packaging printing, and will inform about innovative applications in the field of industrial and functional printing. They will of course also report about the status of preparations for drupa 2020.
“Our aim is to inspire fascination for the applications and possibilities of modern printing technologies in an increasingly networked world and to motivate experts to visit drupa in Düsseldorf, Germany from June 16 to 26, 2020,” added Dr. Markus Heering, managing director of PrintPromotion and VDMA’s Printing and Paper Technology Association.
Visionary technologies and multiple drupa highlights
In the run-up to drupa 2020, four future trends are emerging. They will also be the focus of the world tour conferences:
- Press manufacturers are driving forward the networking of their processes and are making increasing use of the possibilities offered by Artificial Intelligence (AI);
- Business models and cooperation between machine builders, customers and other industry players are undergoing rapid change, leading into the Platform Economy; and
- In today’s world, customers are online around the clock. The print and media industry must adapt to the changing needs of Connected Customers.
Growing environmental awareness, stricter regulation and finite resources require the transition to a Circular Economy. The print and paper industry has long been developing appropriate solutions that will meet with a rapidly growing demand in the future.
Many of the about 1,800 exhibitors at drupa 2020 will highlight corresponding approaches. “The exhibition center is almost fully booked. The current booking level is above that of the 2016 staging,” commented Geldermann. The positive booking situation clearly underlines the diversification of the product portfolios of exhibitors from around 50 nations — including about 400 new exhibitors along the entire value chain.
Networking
The attractive ancillary program at drupa 2020 is also having an impact. Innovators in particular will find a wide range of presentation and networking options. For example the drupa touchpoints, which are special exhibition areas bringing together a wide variety of experts — from CEOs to design students and from global brand owners to start-ups — to discuss future solutions and designs in packaging, opportunities of industrial 3D printing and the possibilities of fully networked process chains in textile printing.
The drupa cube — the central conference area — will focus on how companies from the printing, media and packaging industries and their suppliers from the mechanical engineering sector can adapt to the rapid changes resulting from digitization. “We will discuss such challenges on the drupa world tour and pointing out the possibilities for networking during drupa,” explained Geldermann.
Heering added: “In the globalized printing industry, networking is almost synonymous with future viability. That is why we are all convinced of drupa 2020’s focus and key issues. With the world tour, we want to bring this message into all important target groups and markets worldwide.
From June 6-26, 2020, drupa will offer a 360° overview of modern process and value chains for the print industry. As a global industry meeting place, the event will bring together all the key players and the drupa world tour will promote this opportunity worldwide. “We spare no effort to convince visitors that drupa is of the utmost relevance for their business development and the future of their companies,” Heering emphasized.
Posted September 17, 2019
Source: Messe Düsseldorf North America
