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With trend towards shorter innovation cycles and emergence of data-based digital business models to align with current specific customer requirements, world’s largest press manufacturer – Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) has pulled out of all international exhibitions next year including world’s number one trade fair for printing technologies – drupa as the company focuses on offering digital and regional events options to present its products and innovations to its customers.
This bombshell announcement that it would no longer be exhibiting at drupa 2021 has been exacerbated by the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. According to Heidelberg CEO – Rainer Hundsdörfer; “We all love drupa… it used to be a festival but this is not going to happen next year with distance and masks” stressing that Heidelberg’s participation in next year’s drupa trade fair had been “cancelled due to unforeseeable effects of COVID-19”.
In a press statement made available to WHERE To Print, “COVID-19 has accelerated the move towards digital and local events. Although there is no way of knowing what the impact of coronavirus will be next year, Heidelberg has to make a decision now. So, the company has decided to not participate in international trade fairs next year and will thus not be taking part in drupa. In 2021, drupa will be a very different event – global travel restrictions and hygiene regulations mean significantly fewer visitors and constraints on communication. Traditional international trade fairs with busy booths and halls will very probably be difficult to implement and will likely lose their status as global meet-up events for customers and manufacturers. As a long-time partner to drupa, Heidelberg will be happy to continue to offer its experience when it comes to bringing future trade fair concepts into line with new digital possibilities and customer requirements”.
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However, Heidelberg will direct its future customer communications to virtual and regional trade fairs; “We will be investing more in new, virtual trade fair concepts to ensure closer and more individual customer communications as well as in regional events in our growth markets. This means we will be able to consistently align ourselves with our customers’ expectations”, emphasised Hundsdörfer while informing that the first virtual event tagged “Innovation Week” will be on packaging and commercial in October to present Heidelberg’s innovations.
“Innovation Week” kick-off will be from 19 to 23 October 2020 under the slogan “Unfold your potential” where Heidelberg will be presenting a wealth of product innovations that focus on packaging and commercial, including autonomous printing, end-to-end solutions, Smart Print Shop and Push-to-Stop. The Innovation Week will take place via livestream as well as face-to-face at the Wiesloch / Walldorf location. Heidelberg has already had positive experience of using digital channels in its presentation of the innovations that had been planned for this year’s drupa.
Though Heidelberg acknowledged that customers needed to be informed about latest trends quickly, flexibly and on an ongoing basis, the company statement concluded that; “Face-to-face dialogue will continue to be the focus at the unique Print Media Centers in Wiesloch/Walldorf, Germany; Atlanta, USA; Shanghai, China; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Tokyo, Japan where we can engage with our customers specific needs directly on-site. At the centres, Heidelberg offers all of its customers and other interested parties market-specific access to product and solution demonstrations, a multitude of possibilities for direct communications with applications specialists as well as extensive training courses. The Print Media Centers have already become established locations for customers to experience live demonstrations and for validating investments. Heidelberg generally welcomes several thousand customers annually to its own demo spaces around the world”.
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It would be recalled that two large exhibitors – Xerox and Bobst, had already cancelled their participation while few others like Hewlett-Packard (HP) had scaled back their presence at the biggest printing event on planet earth – drupa 2021 slated for April 20 to 30.
