I have written a number of times about the changes in trade shows in recent years and how things are changing in this area. One area that's changing is supplier and supplier linked events. The first of these was the Océ Open House, an event that no longer takes place. Others include EFI Connect and Dscoop. These are events that are centered around products from one supplier and are attracting many attendees who see the benefits of networking to enhance the way they can learn, and to improve the way they run their businesses. Another example of a supplier driven event is happening this week in Switzerland; this is the Hunkeler Innovationdays. At this event, one supplier brings in their partners, and also some competitors, to build a unique meeting tailored to one specific market in the graphics business. In this case, the market is digital printing and substrate handling and print finishing.

The Hunkeler Innovationdays have grown substantially over the years, and this time the event has changed its location for Lucerne. It has become the most important event for seeing developments in continuous feed digital color printing and the place where suppliers look to showcase their latest developments. We will also see the latest developments from Hunkeler in their inline and near line finishing systems, as well as developments from other print finishing companies and paper companies.

Over the next few weeks we will be covering developments seen at the Hunkeler Innovationdays event in WhatTheyThink with both video interviews and event coverage. We currently have only a limited scope of what we will see, but I am sure that there will be a number of surprises as the event progresses. The following are a few the expected highlights. I apologise to vendors who have advised us of their announcements, but are not covered here. This is just a snapshot of what to expect.