So the guys at Print Business are Drupa fans? You bet, since our Printing World days. Gareth Ward wasn’t even that weekly’s editor when he went to his first in 1986. And Debbie Ward was still Debbie Pout when Terry Ulrick made her get a passport to go to her debut Drupa in 2000 (when the show was so full Xerox were in a warehouse in the car park).
You’ll have seen some changes then. Oh yes. Halls 8A & 8B were new additions built for the digital presses in… you’ll have to ask Gareth. By Drupa 2008 there had been a wedding, both had left Printing World, Gareth for the fledgling Print Business and Debbie was persuaded over to the dark side of PR. She spent that show looking after Screen and Komori with a bit of Dalim and Ghent Workgroup thrown in.
What happens when the Messe shuts the gates at night? Ah, the Aldstadt! Anyone who’s anyone is to be found dining there (unless their cheapskate bosses have bussed them back to the slightly cheaper hotels in Cologne). And after dinner there is only one Irish Pub, Bei Fattys on Bolkerstrasse. You can’t miss it. Most of the UK print industry is there.
