EVENT SPOTLIGHT / THE PRINT SHOW REVIEW 51 November / December 2023 - Issue 345 email: news@printmonthly.co.uk in with exhibitors across the week to find out how business had been going so far. Despite the seemingly quieter feel, many commented on the second day that they had already taken more leads on the first day of the 2023 event than they had in the entire week of the 2022 show. A number of exhibitors also commented that despite the corridors not feeling ‘full’, they had nonetheless felt rushed off their feet with a high number of visitors having specific queries and areas they wanted answers to, or machines they wanted demonstrations on. This seems to signal a shift in the way visitors are attending trade shows, rather than browsing as in previous years, they have a clear agenda and ‘game plan’ in place to get the most out of the names on the floorplan. Having noticed the change in habits of visitors at the 2023 event, Stephenson jokingly said: “I have got a big problem with The Print Show, in that everybody turns up at once. If we can spread the visitors out across the day it would be marvellous. “We’ve got a lot of staff on the stand and at the very start of the day, we’re waiting for the customers and they’re perhaps thinking what’s today going to be like, and then all of a sudden, boom, everyone arrives at once and we can’t possibly manage them all.” Reflecting on the purpose and place of UK trade shows such as The Print Show, he adds: “There’s no substitute for looking somebody in the eye and seeing their whole body language, seeing when they react to things and when they look away. When you’re doing things online with Zoom or Teams or anything else, it’s great as it saves a bit of travel and things like that but it’s not the same when you want to make a decision or persuade somebody, because there are so many other things you use.” Fujifilm actually exhibited at three shows at the same time during the week of The Print Show with a presence also at Sign&Print in Scandinavia and C!Print in Madrid. “It just shows you where print is going as far as reaching out and going to where people are. It’s a valuable thing to do and we’re really pleased to be here at The Print Show this year,” Stephenson adds. For Solopress, the company’s stand was directly influenced by feedback from visitors at the 2022 edition of The Print Show where it was promoting its Solopro trade-only offering. Using its presence this year to promote the launch of its new API, Phil Foster, head of business development of Solopress, explains: “It’s amazing how many people came up to us at last year’s show and said ‘have you got an API? We’d love to integrate with you and use your pricing and product range’, and that led to the belief that we needed to up our game and get something like that sorted out. “Some of our competitors already had that in place, and we needed to be part of that discussion when people are considering those sorts of opportunities.” On why The Print Show was the right place to promote this new offering, Foster says: “We send out lots of marketing emails but often people won’t read all of it, so if you can stand face to face with people and explain the advantages and capabilities of having a Pro account, you can get that message across and it seems to sink in better than over an email.” Diversification is a hot topic in the industry at presence and much of this involves partnering and collaborating with other industry members and companies in different areas and specialities to yourself. Within the floorplan, there was a pocket of businesses partnering up to send visitors to each other to offer a full end-to-end ▲ InkTec used its presence to launch its new 30cm and 60cm DTF machines as well as its UV DTF offering ▼ Visitors had the chance to win hundreds of pounds in the new Cash Grabber competition
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