drupa 2012 Provides Trendsetting Impulses for Print Sector

A total of 314,500 experts from more than 130 countries came to drupa 2012 in Düsseldorf, Germany—75,500 less than at the last staging of drupa in 2008. “This decrease does not come as a surprise for us and the sector as a whole. In Germany alone the printing industry lost some 3,900 companies with over 61,000 employees between 2000 and 2011. During the same time, more than 7,700 printing operations closed in the United States,” explained Werner Matthias Dornscheidt, president and CEO of Messe Düsseldorf. “Against this backdrop it is not surprising that fewer visitors came to drupa 2012. However—and this is the key point—customers now no longer come to drupa as large delegations or on group corporate trips. It is much more top managers who travel to Düsseldorf. drupa is clearly the decision-makers’ trade fair and the trade fair for business.”