Aussies and Kiwis take Drupa by storm

Dusseldorf may be around 16,500km away but that hasn't stopped hundreds of Aussies and Kiwis from descending on the world's biggest printing trade show.

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Whether or not Drupa 2012 is the big spending show that vendors hope for, it is clear that ANZ visitors have come to Drupa to pick up on the trends and find out what is coming next.

With 17 halls of technological exhibits, covering the whole of Drupa in a few days is no mean feat. Savvy visitors, such as Rod Dawson from Southern Colour Victoria, planned ahead and were booked into wall-to-wall meetings when they met ProPrint.

But half the fun of Drupa is stumbling across innovation and there was plenty to choose from.

Benny Landa's nanography was a major drawcard for ANZ guests: consultant Mark Campbell, Next Printing managing director Tom Tjanaria and Soar Print managing director Fred Soar all told ProPrint that this was the standout of their visit so far.

Soar has a track record of investing at the Düsseldorf show. "I ordered my first Indigo eight years ago at Drupa and ordered a Heidelberg Anicolor at the last Drupa."

Another pair who aren't shy of investing in new technology are large-format specialists Keith Ferrel and Nigel Spicer, from Opus Group's Cactus Imaging business.

The pair said they would be inspecting big-ticket items, but were particularly blown away by an oddball device – a "3D Scanner" from little-known German manufacturer Dr Wirth.

Simon Stevens, national manager of digital at Geon New Zealand, said he had some specific aims, with workflow automation one major focus for the trans-Tasman group, but he was just as interested in the big picture stuff, using the show to get a finger on the pulse of technological change.

Plenty of printers from our region are over in Europe as part of wider tours; a handful of offset printers had spent the build-up to Drupa traversing Germany on Heidelberg's popular Top Tech Tour, including Soar and Five Star Print's Carolyn Cagney.

For HP Indigo and Scitex users, the European itinerary had included the Dscoop user group conference in the nearby city of Bonn.

One Dscoop attendee was Picpress boss Michael Warshall, who told ProPrint he had come to Drupa to focus his attention on the new HP Indigo presses, including the B2-format Indigo 10000, as well as Scodix digital embellishing technology, which was also on the massive HP booth and is supplied in Australia by Currie Group.

Next Printing's Tjanaria had also been at Dscoop, and told ProPrint he was at Drupa to look at "technology for textiles and soft signage".

There's little time for downtime during Drupa; when ProPrint caught up with Gavin Allen, the former Brisbane Broncos front rower who runs Crystal Media Group, he had only been at the show for 90 minutes, but he knew what he was looking at – digital.

"If you think digital isn’t the future, you’re kidding yourself," he said.

Of course, printers aren't the only ones from our region represented at Drupa. Plenty of local representatives of major global manufacturers are on hand.

There were beginnings, such as Peter Scott's first Drupa as managing director of Screen Australia, to notable finales, with popular Heidelberg Australia figure Alastair Hadley at his last Drupa before retirement.

One booth with real Aussie heritage was manned by Rohan Holt, founder of LithoTechnics, now officially renamed as Metrix Software after its flagship imposition system.

At his third Drupa since launching Metrix in 2004, Holt was eager to see local faces drop by and get a preview of the upcoming 2012 version.