As the WhatTheyThink team prepares for drupa 2008, Noel Ward Executive Editor of OnDemandJournal.com, and Director of Trade Show Coverage for WhatTheyThink.com shared a drupa fun fact with us earlier today:

As of December 31, 2006 the population of Dusseldorf was 581,858.

The total attendance at drupa 2004 was 394,478 and is expected to exceed 400,000 in 2008. That means that for two weeks, the population of Dusseldorf increases by a total of 68%!

Yikes!

No wonder all the hotel rooms get booked so soon. I talked with a guy last week who had to stay in Venlo, The Netherlands in '04. He came in by train each day and said that missing the last train one night resulted in a VERY expensive cab ride.

drupa is the world's largest exhibition of graphic arts and packaging production technology and takes place every four years in Dusseldorf, Germany for 2 weeks. Back in September Cary Sherburne talked to Joachim Schäfer Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf at Graph Expo about what we can expect from the show:

As the we prepare for drupa, do you have any "fun facts" or war stories to share from previous shows? Words of advice for first-time visitors such as myself?