With its eye-catching space travel-themed branding concept this year, the FESPA 2015 exhibition (Cologne, May 18 – 22 2015) is hoping to help visitors discover a ‘universe of print’, according to FESPA chief executive Neil Felton.

This industry does strange things to people. Neil Felton has always been an exhibition professional in his 22 year career, working in the leisure and food sectors until four years ago when he joined FESPA (the Federation of European Screen Printers Associations). He is now the chief executive officer of the organisation and a self-professed ‘print nerd’.

‘I’m not from the print industry but I have always said that from an exhibition perspective, and this is why FESPA is a great opportunity, it is important to really become part of the industry. Every market I have been in I have become entrenched in. I’m more of a print nerd than I ever expected to be, but I couldn’t do my job unless I was. Some of the technology, like anti-bacterial ink, I think “wow; that is amazing”.’

He is soon to preside over FESPA 2015, the global exhibition for wide format digital, screen and textile printing, which takes place in Cologne (18 – 22 May 2015), and which he promises will be ‘the biggest and strongest’ FESPA show ever, with more than 700 exhibitors, and new features such as Printeriors – an area dedicated to the fast-growing printed interior décor market. This will not, so we are told, be simply a bunch of printers and their equipment suppliers talking about an ‘opportunity’ amongst themselves: high profile fashion designer Wayne Hemingway will be among the design luminaries discussing in a paid-for conference what print can achieve in this market place.

‘We are a federation of associations trying to show printers how to build the demand for print,’ said Mr Felton. ‘If you want to see every exhibitor relevant to your business you’ve got to attend FESPA, and you will probably need two days to do it.’

Lift off

In recent years, the show has used travel-related themes – deep sea diving, aviation – as a metaphor for the journey that the printing industry and the companies within it are on. That is no different this year, with FESPA 2015 inviting visitors to take a journey into outer space to discover a ‘universe of print’ – which can be taken to mean the opportunities (industrial, digital, screen, signage, printed interiors etc.) that are available to them.

‘The space theme has really hit home with people,’ he continued. ‘The marketing has got to be about what a printer is going to get out of it. Cologne is a great city, but we are not selling the city, we’re selling the show and what it will do for them. With Amsterdam (venue for the 2016 show) we will be starting completely afresh with a new concept.’

This is not the only thing under review: direct mail is not a market that FESPA shows solutions for, but its own use of the promotional medium is extensive and growing. The marketing campaign for FESPA 2015 is about to kick off in earnest and Mr Felton revealed that around the world the number of mailers delivered will be in six figures.

‘DM is becoming more and more important to the top exhibition companies because it has more of an impact than email, or certainly a much stronger impact than beforehand. An invitation in the post has real impact. We are re-investigating every channel that we use to promote the show,’ he said.

And if you are a commercial printer, you can expect to be targeted. ‘The commercial print market is massively important,’ Mr Felton confirmed. ‘There is a convergence in the print market, where those printers are seeing what’s happening in this space, and see FESPA as the best place to find out about that. We are always the first port of call for anyone in the digital, screen and garment printing areas. We have many, many members that have moved from the commercial print market, and we are the central repository for this market.’

He said he hopes that visitors will depart from Cologne feeling genuinely that there is ‘a galaxy of opportunities waiting for them’ (the space theme becomes self-perpetuating). The show will have a huge amount of free content (only the Printeriors conference has to be paid for), and there will be many new directions signposted, such as digital signage and the garment, textile and printed interiors applications that many are looking towards.

‘Print remains strong,’ he concluded. ‘Every year there is something new. To me, the market is still buoyant in this sector, and the fact that this is our biggest show ever bears that out.’