Ipex 2014 opens its doors at ExCeL London on 24 March 2014 for six days of educational content and inspiration, which organisers Informa believe will make up for the somewhat reduced cast of exhibitors following several high profile withdrawals.
Deep down, there must have been some dark days for Trevor Crawford, Ipex 2014 event director, during 2013, as nigh on every big name manufacturer in the graphic arts sector announced their intention to sit this one out, often citing their belief that engaging with their customers in more focused, one-to-one single company events was now a more effective way to meet customer demand.
After some scratching of heads, organisers Informa brought a different proposition to the market a year ago – that Ipex would be the first global event where print meets multi-channel. It was pretty typical of Mr Crawford’s luck last year that this was interpreted in some quarters to mean that Ipex was no longer about litho print. Cue another statement denying this and stating that commercial print is at the heart of Ipex, whetherlitho, digital or a mix of processes was used.
The PR machine was having to work hard. It is still working hard now, but that is because the show is almost upon us, with a current floor plan of 40,000 square metres.
Nobody seems to be claiming that this will be the biggest and best ever Ipex; it will be different though. You will not see many litho presses there, since few such manufacturers are actively exhibiting; you will not even see as many digital presses as you might like to, although Konica Minolta, Screen, Xeikon, EFI, Fujifilm, Riso, and MGI are among those exhibiting. Ipex 2014 is about inspiration, according to Mr Crawford.
He told Digital Printer: ‘Inspiration is absolutely paramount – it is the key driver of any forward-thinking, progressive business, and Ipex will provide that. Whether it’s understanding the trends and pitfalls that are shaping the industry, discovering new technologies and applications, developing robust business practices or honing operational skills and techniques, visitors from all corners of the print industry will find a takeaway idea, skill, solution or mind-set that will boost the performance of their company – for free.’
Trevor Crawford, Ipex event director
Education inspiration
There are a number of ways that it will seek to provide this inspiration. A multi-faceted content programme includes the World Print Summit, a senior-level strategic thought leadership programme, with a ‘world-class lineup of speakers from the print, business, marketing and creative industries’ that will deliver insights into the evolving role and power of print.
These speakers have ‘entered markets where others have dared not tread, invested in new technologies that others have shied away from, and been brave enough to create a culture of exploration, failure and innovation to be a success’, we are told.
Sessions at the World Print Summit include ‘How To Future-Proof Print in a Digital Age’, chaired by Barry Hibbert, chief executive of Polestar Group; ‘Print: Doomed or on the Verge of a Digital Renaissance’, chaired by Professor Emeritus Frank Romano, RIT and featuring Benny Landa on the panel; ‘Sustainability – So What? An Audience with Publishers and Printers’, chaired by Neil Everett, partner of Carnstone – PRELIMS Publishing Group, and featuring Meredith Walsh, senior purchasing controller, Penguin Random House, on the panel; ‘A Culture Shift Within The Print Industry’, chaired by David Smith, the Economics editor of The Sunday Times; and ‘The Evolving Role of Print for Consumer Marketing – Changing Attitudes to Print’, with Rory Sutherland, executive creative director and vice chairman, OgilvyOne London and Ogilvy & Mather UK.
The last day of the show will see a special Youth in Print programme in the World Print Summit, featuring presentations from past students of the industry who have made their mark, a tour of Ipex, practical workshops and careers advice for students.
For SME printers specifically, Master Classes – organised by Print Future’s Neil Falconer – will focus on business growth and production efficiency. These practical sessions are aimed at the owner of a print business and his sales and production teams, and will tackle real life, day-to-day issues and how best to solve them to streamline production and support business growth. The classes are about getting the basics right, said Mr Falconer.
Topics announced within the Master Classes include: ‘Evolution of a commercial printer’; ‘Five cost saving tips for better margins’; ‘New age of Print – strategic marketing, creative and great design’; ‘Changing sales and marketing habits to sell more print’; ‘Attracting and retaining the right staff to grow a print business’; and ‘Where printers go wrong with colour management’.
Application inspiration
If sitting in a seminar theatre is not your idea of fun however, and you want to get more hands on, there are a further two areas that might be worth exploring, namely Future Innovations and Inspiration Avenue. The former is an area that will look at the printed products and technologies that are set for rapid expansion over the next few years across four areas – 3D printing, printed electronics, digital printing on packaging and photo products (including plans for daily live demonstrations of how to produce a photobook from start to finish). Future Innovations is aimed at inspiring and providing insight into how applications are created and the solutions used in the production process.
The Inspiration Avenue is a gallery that will be situated in the central Boulevard of the ExCeL venue, meaning that visitors will be able to experience it as they move around the event. Its purpose is to celebrate powerful print opportunities and demonstrate the crucial role of print and its versatility across a number of major themes from around the world, including retail, interactive, automotive, sports, education, design and creative, and electronics. It is believed this will be done through showcasing certain awardwinning pieces of print, and through campaigns that have featured print as a key component.
Another strong draw and source of inspiration is expected to be the inaugural and co-located Cross Media Production 2014 (for just three days, 25 to 27 March 2014), which has an exhibition area and three seminar theatres. The theatres will cover brand management, one-to-one data, digital and data marketing, and publishing. Informa also runs the Cross Media event that has for the last two years taken place at the Business Design Centre in London in October/November.
While that show is aimed as much at the marketer as the print service provider that wants to evolve into a full marketing service provider, Cross Media Production will focus on how to effectively implement communication strategies across multiple platforms. It is very much more about the nuts and bolts of multi-channel campaigns.
At the time of writing, there were ten exhibitors listed for Cross Media Production, with publishing software companies such as Censhare and Chili Publish, alongside XMPie, Talking Print, advertising media delivery, asset management and workflow company Dubsat, marketing asset management software vendor IO Integration, personalised maps specialists Locr, image agency Depositphotos, and the DMA.
The Cross Media Production seminar programme features presentations, case studies and panel discussions on such topics as ‘Expanding Marketing Services to Deliver Cross-Channel Campaigns’, ‘Developing Transformation Strategies from Print to Cross Media’, ‘Increasing ROI Using Customer Insight Programs & Web2Media Platforms’ and ‘Managing Operational & Structural Change in Organisations’. Speakers include Mark Welland from News UK, James Kayes from Ogilvy Redworks, Stuart Corke from the Evening Standard, Jonathan Clayton Jones from Kaldor, Olga Budimir, managing director of Dubsat in Europe and the UK, and other experts from the publishing, brand management and marketing sectors.
Wide format has become recognised as a viable and potentially lucrative avenue for commercial printing companies to diversify into, and for those considering such a move, the Wide Format Zone at Ipex 2014 will provide an opportunity to make investigatory steps into this growing market. A range of devices and ancillary services are to be showcased by companies such as Epson, Screen, D&K and M Partners.
Ipex identity
Ipex is seeking to stand out as more than just ‘the other big printing show’ after drupa, and Trevor Crawford articulated as much in saying to Digital Printer a year ago that ‘we cannot survive just being a drupa-lite’. But how distinctive is the Ipex identity compared to drupa? ‘Ipex has carved its own identity as the first international print event to combine an exhibition with a comprehensive content and feature programme that addresses every level and component of a print company,’ said Mr Crawford. ‘This is important as Ipex has one clear goal, and that is to be the definitive information source for the print industry in 2014, bringing together the print and creative communities to demonstrate the important role of print in the multi-media mix.’
Since those dark days of a year or so ago, when every new week seemed to bring fresh bad news for Ipex, there is certainly a perception that the event has been able to bounce back and recover some of the lost ground. Mr Crawford puts this down to the response of the industry to Ipex’s own research.
He said: ‘Ipex has been adapted in response to global industry research commissioned by Informa in Q4 2012, where it became clear that the industry wanted Ipex to be a print-centric thought leadership event. By consulting the market, we realised there was great demand for an informative and inspiring content programme and we’ve worked hard to deliver that.
‘There has been a positive response from the industry, with exhibitors and visitors reengaging with Ipex as a result. They recognise that it is much more than an exhibition, but an event. On top of the content programme, it arrives at the perfect time for print and media businesses to keep abreast with the latest trends and technologies driving the industry, as well as possessing a proven track record for serving as an international platform to do business. This will no doubt be the case again in 2014.’
He is not making any predictions for visitor numbers for Ipex 2014 because, he says, it is ‘a completely different event’ to any previous Ipex. In any case, he emphasises that the show should not be judged solely on the number of visitors, or on the national/international split of those visitors, but also on the overall delivery of Ipex as an ‘event’.
Mr Crawford concluded: ‘Ipex is much, much more than exhibition, and we can’t wait to demonstrate that in March when we open the doors to its new home at the London ExCeL in one of business capitals of the world.’
