On 12 July 50 Italian print professionals gathered at KBA's customer showroom in Radebeul for an update on the latest advances in sheetfed offset automation and quality control, with demos on the Rapida 106, the world makeready champion. As well as longstanding KBA customers like Mondadori Printing and G. Canale & C., print enterprises working with non-KBA presses were also represented.

Following an opening address by KBA executive vice-president for sheetfed sales, Ralf Sammeck, and a brief introduction the first press to be fired up was a ten-colour Rapida 106 with DriveTronic SPC dedicated plate-cylinder drives which printed four challenging jobs in five-backing-five perfecting mode using a total of eight formes. The first job was a cookbook printed on 135gsm (36lb) matt art paper, with simultaneous high-speed plate changing, washing and makeready for the different signatures. For the next jobs the press operators also changed the substrate and format, printing on 70, 80 and 400gsm (30, 37 and 186lb Bristol) art paper. The demo concluded with flying job changes entailing four different language versions for a four-colour catalogue. The plates for each language plus black were changed in alternately disengaged units 4 and 5, and the relevant unit re-engaged electronically. In keeping with the Formula One event theme the sheets were displayed by Eurospeedway Lausitz' Miss Quarter-Mile. Attendees also had the chance to test their own skills – with or without a pit stop – on a go-cart track outside the hall.

The six-colour Rapida 106 was used to demonstrate inline finishing. First of all it printed package leaflets on 60gsm offset (16lb bond) paper from an RS106 reel-to-sheet feeder. After conversion to sheet production matt-gloss effects were created with a partial application of oil-based varnish and subsequent high-gloss aqueous coating. There followed a surprise run with gloss-coated images taken at the event, pus shots of Dresden and Radebeul. To finish up a run of packaging for Stollen (German Christmas cake) was printed on GT1 cartonboard. The event closed with a tour of Dresden, whereby a trip to Lingnerschloss, a castle bequeathed to the city by Karl-August Lingner, the inventor of Odol mouthwash, "for the benefit of the people of Dresden and surroundings", was not to be missed. The Italian delegation returned home after two days with a host of new impressions.