Duplo’s summer festival received such positive feedback that the organisers have pledged to make the event even bigger and better next year.
Over the two-day event, titled “Celebration of Creativity in Print”, 350 people visited Duplo’s Addlestone, Surrey-based head office and warehouse which was transformed into a festival field complete with artificial green grass, a stage, comedy tent, bar and food concessions.
‘It’s been awesome,’ said Peter Jolly, Duplo UK’s managing director. ‘This is a print revolution. My vision to create a uniquely different event for our industry went even better than even we expected. We were blessed by perfect weather too for this perfect opportunity to celebrate print in the sun while enjoying music from some of the industry’s best talent.
‘Typical comments we got back were along the lines of, “amazing event with a surreal atmosphere”, “thoroughly creative day” and a “really great gig”,’ reported Mr Jolly.
Duplo’s print finishing systems were decked out in festival colours for the event and DuSense, a sensory coater designed for embellishing short-run digital print with highly creative and intricate special effects, at a fraction of the cost of alternative analogue technologies was officially launched at the festival.
Andy Bird, Bristol managing director of Folio Print Finishing, was so impressed by the capabilities of the Duplo 600i booklet system that he signed on the day with Duplo salesman Jason Davies for a twin tower model to complement existing equipment.
‘I was blown away by the quality and the speed,’ Mr Bird. ‘We’ve been looking for additional options and this helps meet the changing demands of customer requirements. I’m delighted to be going for the Duplo 600i booklet system rather than heavy duty traditional finishing kit.’
‘Doing real business was the icing on the cake,’ concluded Mr Jolly.
In the weeks preceding the event, Mr Jolly ran 172 kilometres – the distance from Duplo HQ to Glastonbury – to raise money for Addlestone-based Shooting Star Chase, a children’s hospice charity. He is set to hit his four-figure charity sum. Donations can still be made via this link.
