During the three-day event, held in April, some 6 100 visitors dealt with the industry’s main theme – printing in the mobile age of e-books, iPads, Facebook and the like. ‘Although digi:media targeted German-speaking and Benelux countries, visitors from 29 nations came to experience the trade fair début,’ says Hans Werner Reinhard, deputy MD at Messe Düsseldorf.
The international press also took a vivid interest in digi:media: 314 journalists from 19 countries were accredited.
The digi:media strategy to bring together all the target groups involved in communication and to initiate multi-disciplinary exchange proved especially successful. Print and media service providers as well as advertising and creative agencies, marketing decision-makers and publishers used digi:media as a platform to gather information on the convergence between media channels of print, web and mobile communication.
manroland and Océ partnership
Not only did the show celebrate its premiere, it was also the first time that manroland and strategic partner Océ exhibited together. Live demonstrations showed how offset and industrial digital printing form a symbiosis. manroland’s subsidiary company ppi Media was also present and presented cross-media software solutions.
On the stand shared by manroland, Océ and ppi Media the advantages of offset were united with the strengths of digital printing. Here trade visitors could follow a simulated ordering procedure that combined both printing processes.
Here’s how it works: The first step showed the strengths of offset printing with a magazine travel ad printed web offset and a response card enhanced by sheetfed offset. On returning the card, the customer receives individualised and general information produced by sheetfed offset plus digital printing. Those who decide to book a trip are shown the procedure in a personalised travel plan, digitally printed in a run length of one.
Networked workflows
Offset and digital printing from manroland and Océ form a genuine symbiosis – even the workflows are tightly networked. Here the two companies offer the world’s first total digital solution with many advantages for customers along the entire value-adding chain. Printing services providers can utilise the benefits of both printing technologies and get comprehensive guidance from the partners in planning, implementing and support for the entire system solution.
During the digi:media show, cross-media software solutions from ppi Media also attracted great interest. Here the focus was on the multi-media ad platform AdX that embraces print, online and mobile, as well as editorial workflows using Content-X software, which can place contents from a Content Management System in the DTP program Adobe InDesign.
Exhibitors were pleased
Here are a few more typical testimonials from digi:media exhibitors:
‘Apart from concrete deals concluded for Heidelberg’s entire product portfolio, including the new Ricoh press, numerous promising projects were triggered. Heidelberg presented solutions for combining offset and digital printing. Both our established products and, of course, our new digital printing solutions were well received by the expert audience,’ says Heidelberg’s Karl Saueressig.
Adds Bertram Störch of Hewlett Packard: ‘Our impression of digi:media is very positive. Very good conversations, very good attendance. The trade fair concept ‘Content meets Technology meets Business’ proved to be the very thing. We also have to address contentproviders with our ranges.
Adds Daragan Nolic of Müller Martini: ‘For us, participation at digi:media as an exhibitor was a logical step. digi:media is a good opportunity for all target groups involved in the workflow – from prepress and print service providers to post-press operations. Dialogue with marketers and agencies will be even more decisive in future.’
‘The concept of not focusing on technology alone but presenting it in conjunction with content and business has convinced us 100%. Demonstrating the complete workflow is decisive. Xerox put the idea of digi:media into practice 1:1 on its stand,’ reckons Albrecht Brenner of Xerox.
