At the recent staging of drupa 2008, print media trade fair, the 1,971 exhibitors from 52 countries unanimously reported an extremely high number of promising contacts and successful purchase deals. "drupa 2008 has sent out a clear signal: due to numerous innovations and new fields of business, the print media sector is more agile than ever," stated Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann, President of drupa and CEO of Koenig & Bauer AG. "This is clearly reflected in the numerous deals concluded with virtually all key business regions." Overall, drupa exhibitors announced deals concluded worth more than Euro 10 billion. Industry insiders suspect the actual investment sum to be considerably higher.

Around 391,000 visitors from 138 countries and 3,000 journalists from 84 countries traveled to Düsseldorf, Germany to gather information on innovations, developments and new fields of business. Accounting for 59%of the visitor total, international visitor participation increased by 4% compared to drupa 2004. "This means drupa has further developed its global market significance and its international status. Given the difficult economic climate this is a remarkable success. Fortunately, we were able to increase the proportion of overseas visitors to 43%", explained Werner M. Dornscheidt, President & CEO of Messe Düsseldorf. Particularly contributing to this growth were Asian and Latin American trade visitors with 7%coming from South and Central America and 15%from Asia (2004: 13.6%). At a surprising level of 6%, the proportion of North American visitors remained constant. “We had anticipated slight decreases not only because of the high level of the Euro,” commented Werner M. Dornscheidt. “But these figures also clearly show: drupa is top worldwide and nothing moves in the print and media industry without it!”

On the exhibitor side, 64% of the companies came from countries other than Germany, with Italy (191 exhibitors), China (139), Great Britain (135) and the U.S. (105) as the leading foreign exhibitor nations. The U.S. exhibitor figure includes 27 companies displaying their products within the successful U.S. Pavilion, organized by Messe Düsseldorf North America (MDNA) and co-sponsored by NPES – The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies.

Visitors not only gave drupa 2008 excellent ratings (97% rated the event positively) but also increased their average stay at the trade fair to 3.2 days (2004: 3 days). This figure is all the more remarkable since considerably more top managers attended drupa 2008 – 45% compared to 42.2% in 2004. "Our expectations of drupa 2008 were entirely fulfilled. We are particularly satisfied with the quality of contacts. Already by the second day we had had high quality talks with visitors from throughout the world. The number of orders taken has exceeded our expectations," remarked Martin Weickenmeier, Vice-President of drupa and CEO of Körber PaperLink GmbH.

According to the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), drupa 2008 also significantly surpassed their expectations. "Before the start of drupa we were unsure what customer behavior to expect. However, the last two weeks showed that investments are planned and implemented even in a difficult market climate," noted Kai Büntemeyer, President of the Printing and Paper Technologies Association within the VDMA.

From the point of view of German printing companies, drupa is the most important trade fair for new print technologies – it increasingly acts as a source of ideas for new products and services," said Thomas Mayer, General Manager of the German Printing and Media Industries Federation. “Through application examples, demonstrations and the Compass Sessions, trade visitors were shown how the new technologies can be used for innovative print products and intelligent customer solutions."

The paper industry associations represented at drupa 2008 in a joint stand - the German Pulp and Paper Association (VDP) and the Business Associations for Paper Processing (WPV) – rated their participation as successful. The member companies of the National Printing Inks Association were also pleased with their results and reported above average visitor numbers from the Far East, India and South America.

The specialist ancillary program at drupa 2008 was very popular. With over 130 exhibitors presenting innovations in the digital supplies sector, the drupa innovation parc was a great success. The drupacube served as an infotainment center for print buyers. During the day, it was the site of workshops and symposia while in the evening it turned into a stylish venue for events. More than 830 print buyers took advantage of this offer.

According to the motto "one drupa ends and another begins", the dates for the next drupa have already been set: May 3 – 16, 2012 in Düsseldorf. For further information on visiting or exhibiting at drupa 2012, contact Messe Düsseldorf North America, 150 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2920, Chicago, IL 60601. Telephone: (312) 781-5180; Fax: (312) 781-5188; E-mail: info@mdna.com. Or visit the web site http://www.mdna.com.

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