drupa, the world's leading trade
fair for print and cross-media solutions, will switch to a three-year cycle
after 2016, when it runs from 31 May to 10 June. This decision was taken by the
drupa committee at today's meeting in Duesseldorf. "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 func-tional printing,"
explains Claus Bolza-Schuenemann, Chairman of the drupa Advisory Board and
President Koenig & Bauer Group. "It's more important than ever before
that our customers have an overview of the latest technology and are also
inspired to use new business models and solutions. drupa is the only specialist
trade fair in the world to offer this- and will do so every three years in the
future."
One positive side-effect of this
change is that drupa will no longer run in 2020, the same year as interpack,
the world's most important trade fair for the packaging industry and the
closely related process industry. "The drupa exhibitors who specialise in
packaging printing would have found 2020 an incredibly stressful year so the
change will clearly benefit customers," emphasises Werner Matthias Dornscheidt,
President & CEO Messe Dusseldorf. The precise dates haven't yet been
finalised, but it's clear that drupa will take place in the traditional drupa
month of May in 2019, 2022 and 2025 in Duesseldorf.
