The 8th meeting of the Eastern European printers took place in Ukraine this year on 19th and 20th September. It was hosted by the Ukrainian Academy of Printing. The InPEQ Forum (International Forum on Print Efficiency and Quality) is the advancement of the Balkan Print Forum. It is an important event for the region bringing together printers and manufacturers as well as professors and university teachers to exchange experiences and know-how, to discuss trends and tendencies of the development of the print and media industry, to establish new contacts, and to intensify existing ones.  

On 19th September, 182 participants from 14 countries came together in the conference room of the Dnister hotel in Lviv where highly professional referees from manroland web systems, Canon Europe, Procemex, Müller Martini, Intergraf, the Ukrainian Academy of Printing, and the Ukrainian printing company Vysoky zamok presented novelties and trends in the printing industry under the motto "East meets West – printers for efficiency and success". Among the participants were customers from manroland web systems, too: managers and executives of the renowned Ukrainian companies A-Print, Express Media Poligraph, Keramist, United Media Holding, and Vysoky zamok.

Sabine Sirach, Product Marketing Newspaper, and Michael König, Sales Project Manager, both manroland web systems, talked about the subject "Successful innovations for printed products". The participants were deeply impressed by the new creative ideas and added value concepts using different printing inks and papers as well as by the creative folding and gluing variants. "Print has to fascinate!" This was emphasized by the referees, and they actually managed to totally enthuse the attendees with the presented unique and very successful newspaper products. Of special interest were the innovative advertisements in Indian newspapers, featuring e. g. neon or scent colors, half covers, flaps, or butterfly applications. The new business model Integrated Inkjet, the application for variable data imprint in newspaper production, was also highly appreciated by the experts.

The sponsor manroland web systems and the co-sponsors Canon Europe, Procemex, and Müller Martini answered the journalists’ questions during the InPEQ Forum press conference and also within several interviews before and after the event. The Ukrainian press evaluated the international event in Lviv as unique and extremely important for the country’s printing industry. The especially positive feedback from managers and experts of printing companies, trading firms, agencies, schools, and universities as well as from manufacturers and the local and international press demonstrated once more that the Forum in Lviv is a great success for the InPEQ print media community.

On 20th September more than 80 professors and students from nine Eastern European universities and colleges for print media met in the conference room of the Ukrainian Academy of Printing to exchange information about scientific research, professional education, and qualification of students and aspirants as well as discuss possibilities of cooperation.

The next InPEQ Forum will take place in October 2014. The main objectives of the event remain exchanging experiences and expertise, establishing and intensifying contacts, and supporting joint projects in the Eastern European and some Asian countries.