drupa 2008 went by many names. A vast majority called it the "Inkjet drupa," some called it the "Workflow drupa," others said it was the "Web-to-print drupa." Not satisfied with the "Inkjet drupa" meme, he started two years ago, Frank Romano has been overheard now calling it the "IT drupa." Cary Sherburne of WhatTheyThink.com told me she thinks this was the "Print Buyer drupa" due to the show organizers activity marketing the event to print buyers.
For many this was their first drupa, others called it their last drupa.
Many printers will remember it as the iGen4 drupa, the NewPress drupa, the Lithrone S40 drupa - the drupa where they decided to make the financial investment in that new piece of technology to grow and improve their business.
From my perspective it was the "New Media drupa." Media was being created everywhere by everyone and shared across the world via Web. The speed at which information was disseminated was faster than ever.
Press releases went live shortly after they were announced;
photos were posted from mobile devices;
Blog posts were written shortly after announcements (The Print CEO Blog published over 25 posts live from the show);
A 22 minute video of the Public Printer was online shortly after it was recorded;
drupa was covered in thousands of blog posts — Bloggers like Eliot Harper provided unbiased product reviews;
Vendors created engaging new media: Xerox revamped their In the Balance blog with commentary from Industry Media, Analysts and Xerox employees;
Kodak debuted their new Grow Your Biz blog with employee-written blog posts live from the Kodak booth;
Jeff Hayzlett, Kodak's Chief Business Development Officer was twittering from the show;
Hundreds of photos were posted to flickr by attendees;
Videos were posted to YouTube (Many by students at the Stuttgart Media University).
I wouldn't be surprised if more media was created and disseminated in the first hours of drupa, then was created during the entire first drupa (AKA "Original Heidelberger Tiege drupa").What drupa was it for you?
Discussion
By Michael Mittelhaus on Jun 15, 2008
Quiet Drupa
I think it was mainly a quit Drupa, which really had no "Big Bang" to show. Networked Integration was intensively demonstrated at Heidelbergs Hall 1+2. Automation was shown everywhere, amongst Prepress, Press and Postpress. And no, it was not the Inkjet Drupa, but an Inkjet concept Drupa.
And by the way: The number of visitors has slightly dropped, from 394.478 in 2008 to 391.000 this year. With ticket prices at 50 € no wonder, but a wonder that WTTY saw an visitors increase by 39%.
By Don Piontek on Jun 18, 2008
Though there were many ink-jet systems demonstrated, a large number were "concepts" meant to show the possibilities coming down the pike for 2009, 2010, or beyond. Unfortunately, I think this has created confusion among many attendee's as to which technology or system will be commercially viable for their business.
The end result may be that everyone puts off their buying decision or commitment and waits for further developments. I'm not sure this is what the vendors intended.
By Pat McGrew, EDP on Jun 20, 2008
Everything AND the Kitchen Sink....
What a drupa! I would agree with those who have said that it was NOT the inkjet drupa. I think that for everyone who came through the gates it was the drupa of their needs. CTP folks found great CTP solutions. Bindery folks found great bindery solutions. Offset printers found great workflow, equipment and finishing solutions. And, digital printers found great solutions in every technology. Sure, there were a lot of new players in inkjet, and a lot of established players with new solutions, but in the end, every drupa attendee could make it their drupa. Heck, it wasn't even the digital drupa! How many buildings had nothing digital in them at all?
The thing that this drupa did, however, was establish the viability of full color, digital production printing for printers of all types. In 2004 we had the equipment and the early adopters, but in 2008 more printers identified themselves in dual print environments than we've seen before. Just talk to the workflow providers. They say that most of the people they did demonstrations for are already in combined shops and now looking for ways to use a single workflow.
Will 2012 be the inkjet drupa? Could be, but by then inkjet may be so well established that it may become the "finishing" drupa!
Discussion
Join the discussion Sign In or Become a Member, doing so is simple and free