June 17, 2004 -- PrintCity — the multiple partner, multi-workflow, CIM-inspired pavilion at drupa — made lasting, positive impressions on the hundreds of thousand of show goers who visited the attraction. That, according to an exit survey by PrintCity organizers. Ninety percent of those polled liked the collaborative structure of Hall 6, which integrated technology from 58 different PrintCity partners. The purpose: to demonstrate complete prepress/press/postpress workflows that produced actual products. Showgoers appreciated the real-world working environment of the exhibit. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents considered PrintCity’s factory concept to be “interesting” or “very interesting.” Five production factories were at work every drupa day in Hall 6. Each focused on a different market sector. Each networked its components in a JDF-driven workflow. And each produced value-added printed products that supported three different brand families, which were created especially for the show. “Many in the media branded this as the JDF drupa,” observed Christian Cerfontaine, Director of Marketing for MAN Roland Inc., which was the leading PrintCity partner. “If that was the case, PrintCity was the place to see the potential of JDF come to life with working examples that produced real printed products.” PrintCity’s push for total integration of all products and services shown in Hall 6 did not, however, detract from the individual identities of the companies that participated in the cooperative venture. More than 80% of those surveyed said they could easily find the products and companies they were looking for in Hall 6. The PrintCity partners also had positive recollections of the initiative. Gerd Finkbeiner, CEO of MAN Roland, described this drupa’s PrintCity as a big step forward. MAN Roland reported that new orders exceeded 470 million euros at the show, a figure close to the results of the record drupa 2000. Craig Halgreen, marketing communications manager of Sappi Fine Paper Europe had similar praise: “Sappi is proud to be a member of Print City and is satisfied with the success of its participation at drupa 2004. We estimate that some 3,000 leads were generated.” Cerfontaine noted that while there won’t be another PrintCity until the industry’s next international trade show, the spirit of the initiative lives on: “It is embodied in MAN Roland’s philosophy of providing open systems to which printers can connect the best possible solutions for their facilities. “PrintCity is more than a trade show pavilion, it is a state of mind,” he added. “It means a printer never has to settle for second best, because of incompatibility or interoperability issues. Thanks to initiatives like PrintCity, we’ll be able to connect it all in a way that makes the most sense for each individual printer.”