This is my final blog entry covering drupa 2008 that finished just under one week ago.

One of the most interesting areas at drupa was in Hall 7 and it was the drupa Innovation Parc (dip). This hall differed from every other hall at drupa in that it was one where there were no manufacturer stands but instead every exhibitor, large or small, was treated the same. For the payment an exhibitor was provided with a pre-constructed exhibit area with a back wall stating the exhibitor name, a table top display area and an Internet connection. There were three sizes of display area available at three different prices (very small, not so small, and a little bit bigger). The concept of the drupa Innovation Parc that was conceived by its presenter Bernd Zipper, a leading German consultant and managed by Messe Düsseldorf, was to allow a lot of suppliers to show innovative systems in a simple environment. It was in fact very similar to the old 'table top' format that we used to see at Seybold Seminars in the USA in the 1980s. To exhibit in the drupa Innovation Parc a company needed to show an innovative product or products. As such it was not limited to small companies. HP, SAP, Agfa and Océ were among the exhibitors.

The drupa Innovation Parc was presented overall by HP but then there were different areas of the Parc presented by other organizations. These areas were as follows:

dip Creative Production Parc presented by Adobe
dip PDF + XML Production Parc presented by Global Graphics
dip Print + Production Parc presented by Agfa
dip Print Buyer Integration Parc presented by AlphaPicture
dip JDF Experience Parc presented by Heidelberg
dip Document Management Parc presented by Compart
dip Online Communications Parc presented by Kuhnert

In addition to the specific Parcs there were also two stages at which continuous presentations were given throughout the day.

dip JDF Experience Stage presented by SAP
dip stage presented by Adobe, Kodak and Heidelberg and powered by Océ

In addition to the above Océ was the dip Official Print Production Partner and Rockwell Automation presented the dip Sponsor and Business Lounges. There was a daily dip Report covering product reviews and news and this was created by a group of well known writers including John Parsons of Seybold' George Alexander and Han-Georg Wenke of Zipcon Consulting.

This is the second drupa at which we have seen the dip. The first time in 2004 proved the concept and this drupa it grew to be a real success with more than 130 exhibitors and 3,000 sq meters of space.

It is not feasible to do a commentary on the exhibitors as both time to assess them and space to write about them was limited. However one can say that the dip is becoming one of the key areas at drupa. It is where one can see many of the innovations that will impact upon the future of this industry. At the dip this year we saw many innovations that showed how the Internet is a critical element in modern publishing and printing. The dip will be back in 2012 and I feel that attendees should make this one of the first places they visit on their next drupa visit, as I'm sure it will have some of the most innovative technologies to be seen then.