PACPRINT TO RUN EVERY TWO YEARS, ALTERNATING MELBOURNE AND SYDNEY

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The region’s biggest print industry trade show, PacPrint, will now run every two years, and will alternate between Melbourne and Sydney.

Every two years: PacPrint now to alternate between Melbourne and Sydney
Every two years: PacPrint now to alternate between Melbourne and Sydney

The new schedule means the end of PrintEx, which was originally created for Sydney as a smaller scale event, although the reality in recent years has been that there has been no limits on stand sizes. The new move effectively rebrands PrintEx as PacPrint, and means PacPrint has continuity.

The next PacPrint will be 2025 in Sydney, at the Sydney Showgrounds in the Olympic Park, then 2027 in Melbourne, alternating between the two from then on.

Organisers and exhibitors are keen to attract a larger slice of the non-Victorian market to PacPrint. The majority of PacPrint visitors currently come from Victoria.

Local wide-format show Visual Impact will run as a stand-alone event in non-PacPrint years, taking place next year in Sydney, and in 2024 in Brisbane.

PacPrint has been at its current home of the Melbourne Exhibition centre since 1996 when it moved from the Royal Exhibition building, running every four years since 2001, apart from the Covid 2021 year, last month's event was that postponed show.

Following the end of Covid restrictions the big global expos that attract ANZ printers are all on reset; drupa is restarting its four year schedule, with 2024 the next outing, after being forced to postpone, then cancel, the 2020 show. The dates for PacPrint are designed to avoid clashing with what is still the mother of all trade shows. Igas in Tokyo is taking place in November this year, it too is on a four year cycle, the next one after this year is 2026, and again the new PacPrint dates will avoid an Igas year.

Of the other two big global shows that were on the four year cycle, Ipex died a death when it made an ill-judged move to an obscure part of east London a decade ago, while the big US show Print is also no more, it morphed into Printing United when it joined with the sign expo SGIA, and now runs every year, athough no longer in Chicago, it alternates between the warmer climes of Florida and Las Vegas, usually in October.

The specialist Labelexpo is back to running every year, alternating between Chicago and Brussels, and wide format show Fespa Global is also back to an annual event, the location usually moving between Berlin, Munich and Amsterdam. Both attract a good number of printers from Australia and New Zealand.

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