drupa every three years - Zurück in die Zukunft? Andy McCourt's Reverb

It means back to the future because the very first two drupas were three years apart; 1951 and 1954. The show then moved to a four-year cycle, then five years and back to four years in recent times. Now it’s going back to every three years -— why?

Printing, paper and packaging trade shows have always been major undertakings for exhibitors and organizers alike. To ship, assemble and commission presses of up to 60 tonnes in weight, or complex bookbinding and finishing lines as long as a basketball court; requires substantial human and financial resources. All this for two weeks in the Rhineland springtime.

Digital production technologies have made bringing the world’s latest printing technologies to Düsseldorf for the world to see every four years a little easier, but even these are growing in size and weight as digital continues to nip at the heels of offset, gravure and flexography.

 Australian and New Zealand/Oceania printers have always been strong patrons of drupa, with our region attracting 3% of the total visitors numbered at 314,000 in 2012. This would indicate around 9,400 visitors but a ‘visit’ is considered one day at the show so, with an average audited stay of three days, perhaps the number of actual individuals is about 3,100 – still an impressive number.

Exhibitors and visitors alike have been vocal about the proliferation of trade shows, the cost of participation and the frequency of major shows. In 2013 under former director Manuel Mataré, drupa tried to force a three-year cycle, which would have put it on a collision course with Ipex 2018 and other shows. https://print21.com.au/drupa-snooper-drupa-every-three-years-can-we-take-it/52867 . The idea was roundly rejected by major exhibitors as increasing their potential costs while not delivering extra revenues.

What has changed to make the triennial drupa now a reality? The organizers, Messe Düsseldorf, cite the changing world of print and communications, saying: “The entire print process chain has changed radically because of the Internet and digital technologies. New applications and solutions are developing and opening up new fields of business. At the same time, there is more focus on innovative technologies, such as 3D printing, printed electronics and functional printing.”

Trade fair organization is big business in Germany and they are very good at it. About 280km away from Düsseldorf in Lower Saxony is the world’s largest trade fairground – Deutsche Messe Hannover, It is here, every year that the giant CeBit 'Exhibition & Conference for IT & Digital Business' takes place. With over half a million square metres of available exhibit space in 26 halls and open spaces, the scale is awesome. Compare the Melbourne Exhibition Centre which is 30,000 square metres. Messe Düsseldorf must look north-east to their Hannovarian rivals with envy at the ability to stage a huge IT and Digital Business event every year. The cross-over between CeBit and drupa is undeniable and it is all one-way traffic; digital usurping conventional.

drupa is indeed faced with the issue of major change and yet, the industry still depends on heavy machinery to convert papers and boards into products. Witness the upsizing of Landa’s Nanographic S10 B1 digital press from the 10 tonnes shown as a prototype at drupa 2012, to the 30 tonne machine that will be on sale at drupa 2016. Also witness USA printer Quad Graphics announcement to buy twenty HP T400 digital web presses, which can grow to over 30 metres in length with inline finishing.

The drupa conundrum

The conundrum for drupa might be: 'how do we continue to service the legacy conventional printing and converting industries while getting a slice of the growing digital markets?' You only have to look at the size and presentation of digital press supplier stands at the last drupa, 2012, to see where the growth money is. Xerox even had Cirque du Soleil performing on its booth.

The other way a trade fair such as drupa can increase revenue is to attack other trade fairs and in this they have been quite successful. The national shows of France, Italy, Spain and, in 2014, the UK have been severely affected by aggressive drupa marketing and a federalist EU approach to a central major event. Add to this the declining trade show budgets of hard-pressed exhibitors, the proliferation of open houses and hosted user-group events such as Hunkeler Innovation Days, Dscoop, EFI Connect and so forth and you have a perfect storm to worry even the most seasoned trade show organizer.

Australia/New Zealand cannot escape the solar wind effect of a triennial drupa. PacPrint was conceived as a show to occur one year after drupa in order to bring drupa technologies to view in Oceania. A taste of this was to be felt at PacPrint 2013 when Heidelberg failed to show up. I still can’t see them on the PrintEx floor plan for this May.

With the next drupas being triennial; here’s how the clash calendar looks:

Drupa: 2016, 2019, 2022, 2025

PacPrint: 2017, 2021, 2025

PrintEx: 2015, 2019, 2023

It’s even worse for Ipex, UK, which has traditionally slotted into a convenient two years in between drupas: 2018, 2022, 2026

All of this assumes that current trade show cycles remain as they are.

Ipex of course, suffered the withdrawal of several key exhibitors at the 2014 show and attendance was well down too. In the USA and Japan, shows seem to paddle along in their own canoes; Print, GraphExpo, Igas and Jgas serve those markets although not without their own difficulties. China is a standout exception with several burgeoning trade fairs as its industry continues to grow exponentially. The Indian and Thai shows are also strong and growing.

The trend appears to be that strong trade fairs get stronger in growth markets while mature markets suffer stagnation and consolidation. The past three drupas have shown significant reductions in visitor attendance, while the number of exhibitors has remained static. The show has shortened its duration and exhibitor stand space has reduced – I will be amazed if we see a two-hall Heidelberg presence at drupa 2016 next year.

All of this amounts to one major issue: reduced revenue. Drupa’s answer to this is to hold the event 25% more frequently, in the hope that revenues will also escalate by 25% to make up for what it has lost. Remember this also applies to the entire ‘drupa city’ of Düsseldorf, which gets behind the show like no other place on Earth. Every citizen, bartender, waiter, restaurateur, taxi driver, tram conductor and shopkeeper seems to live and breathe drupa while it is on and the hospitality is heartwarming.

One show at a time

Apart from devastating trade show calendars the world over, including our own, will drupa’s triennial roll-of-the-dice work? While I have private reservations that it could be a change too far, my main focus is on drupa 2016, one year after PrintEx, both of which I genuinely believe will be magnificent shows.

Vogue words such as ‘tipping point’ and ‘watershed’ could apply but not from me. I simply think that the weight of digital technologies will be so immense that drupa will live up to its legacy as the focal printing, paper and related event of the year. It could be the best drupa ever. What happens after that is anyone’s guess because of the disruption cause by going triennial, everything will be up for grabs globally and we could see a trade fair earthquake happening.

For 2016, it helps that drupa is later, the last day of May and first 10 days of June. Balmy weather, 11 hours of sunshine each day with only occasional rain; Spargelzeit (delicious white asparagus season) will be in full flight; the smiling ladies on the Würstelstanden (sausage stalls) in the open areas of drupa will be doing a roaring trade and Altbier will be plentiful.

It will be my last drupa. Until the next one.

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