The Print Show at the NEC seemed to benefit from a move back to the older part of the National Exhibition Centre, attracting larger crowds than the organiser had hoped for.
The unofficial target of 5,000 over the three days had been broken before the end of the second day as a jubilant sales director Chris Davis was telling every exhibitor he could find on the last morning. If the third day attracted a further 1,000 visitors, this would be a 50% increase on the 4,000 that passed through the doors last time.
The event was helped by the colocation of the Sign Show for the first time, but also by a relative lack of time wasters, also known as students, which meant that exhibitors were seeing a better level of visitor. The additional space meant that companies were able to show more equipment and many chose to do so. Large format flatbeds from SwissQPrint, Fujifilm, Inktec, China Print Supplies and rollfed presses from the likes of Fujifilm, Agfa, InkTec, Mimaki, Epson, Mutoh and a huge machine from China Print Supplies gave those walking the aisles plenty to consider.
The event was not so well supported on the small format digital side with Fujifilm and Konica Minolta as the companies with presses on show. Canon, Xerox and Ricoh were nowhere to be seen.
The event continues to attract a good spread of trade printers. Print.com, which had taken off at the show a year ago, returned to hand out stroopwaffels, saying that it had picked up a good number of strong leads. Solopress, with one of the more striking stands, and Route1 represented online print for commercial printers considering a move away from running their own production. Venture Banners and others did the same for large format printing.
Automation was discussed in the Learning Zone presentations, but was not a strong feature of the show. Artworker, PrintIQ, Workflowz and XMPie were more than a token gesture, but not enough to satisfy a printer wanting to really understand end to end automation.
There was plenty of finishing on display from stalwarts like Plockmatic, Vivid (who made the most significant product launch of the show) and Encore Machinery, to the return of Perfect Bindery Solutions which has been absent from the most recent events.
Antalis and EBB flew the flag for paper while others offer training and consultancy, finance, specialist services and thanks to Exel Machinery, pre owned presses. It was a trade show that more than justified its existence and the presence ot the companies on the floor.
