The future of the proposed Digital Print UK exhibition is in some doubt, following the decision by organiser Faversham House to cancel the inaugural show. It had been due to take place in November 2013 at the NEC in Birmingham, having already been postponed once due to the sluggish economy.
A statement from Faversham House said that feedback from a number of suppliers in the industry has caused this latest false start – perhaps of little surprise given the well publicised travails of Ipex, with major manufacturers such as HP, Xerox and Kodak all withdrawing from the 2014 event.
Event director Rudi Blackett explained, ‘Our intention for Digital Print UK was always to make the exhibition a successful buying and lead generation event similar to Sign & Digital UK, but unfortunately in the current climate a number of major suppliers in commercial digital print have decided to concentrate their focus and budgets on other routes to market at this time. This is borne out by some of the leading companies in the industry deciding not to exhibit at print events. This is particularly disappointing as we had a broad spectrum of exhibitors confirmed for the exhibition.
‘We will continue to monitor the market in the future to see if the opportunity arises to run an event for that market sector. In the meantime we will be focusing on our growing portfolio of events in the market sectors we currently serve.’ This includes the wide format and sign making exhibition, Sign & Digital UK, at the NEC in April to May, for which a number of major manufacturers are confirmed to participate.
