Newspaper & Mailroom
IFRA Expo in Amsterdam reaches a successful conclusion
Monday 03. November 2008 - More than 8,800 Visitors saw the "Big Picture" of the News Publishing Industry
IFRA Expo in Amsterdam ended today. A total of more than 8,800visitors from 82 countries came to the Dutch capital, where 335 exhibitors from 26 countries presented their innovations for cross-media publishing on 13,321 m² net exhibition floor space.
The motto of IFRA Expo 2008 was “Get the Big Picture”. Reiner Mittelbach, CEO of IFRA: “At a time such as now that is characterised by structural changes in the media industry as well as by the financial crisis, the IFRA Expo acts as an anchor for our industry. It gives impulses for new business models, it highlights technological developments – for the complete media spectrum offered by publishing houses today. Above all, it offers unique networking opportunities with colleagues from all over the world.”
IFRA presented the winners of the IFRA XMA Cross Media Awards 2008 at the exhibition. The focus topic of the XMA Awards 2008 was on the cross-media advertising business. Publishing houses from Croatia, Germany, India, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom received awards for outstanding cross-media advertising campaigns.
The advertising business played an important role on the stands of the exhibitors. Many companies showed innovative ad formats for print, online, mobile media and web TV. At the centre of interest were booking systems for cross-media campaigns.
Automation and flexibility are of major importance at the prepress and printing stages as well as in the mailroom. This was reflected in the strong demand for compact presses, automatic plate change solutions and chemical-free plates.
IFRA offered an extensive programme of accompanying events during the exhibition, including five Focus Sessions, the “Customer Insight” workshop, events focusing on the latest IPTC standard and on AdsML. The IFRA Expo Solution Park presented newsroom management, mobile services, search technologies, advertising/CRM, solutions for newspaper production and distribution. A large number of networking events completed the programme.
Comments of exhibitors and visitors
Visitor statements:
Rob van Veldhoven, CTP, Bongers Print:
“IFRA is the perfect place to meet new companies and to establish new business relationships. The IFRA Expo is very specialised, and the people on the stand take all the time you need.”
Jörg Kamlah, Production Manager, Druckzentrum Braunschweig:
“I believe the IFRA Expo is a great institution for the newspaper industry. I myself am looking for a mailroom system and I’m very surprised by the enormous diversity and options.”
A selection of exhibitors:
Ronald Marien, Director Global Communications, AGFA Graphics: “For us, IFRA Expo stays the only real get-together of newspaper industry in Europe but also beyond it. Even in a drupa year IFRA Expo is able to attract all the important European publishers. Weve had many opportunities to introduce new products for the newspaper production.”
Davide Garavaglia, Business Development and Marketing Manager, Atex: “Despite the economic crisis and a generally bad mood, we have had greater success than last year. We have seen 20% more visits and delivered more presentations. The reason is that we are showing advanced integration between print and digital channels. The organisation and set-up in Amsterdam were perfect.”
Peter Resele, Managing Director, Comyan
“We had very good meetings and a very good exhibition overall, even though we recorded fewer visitors than last year. Interest was focused mainly on our highlight, the new video content management system. IFRA Expo is important for networking with customers.”
Eric Bell, Marketing Manager – Europe, GOSS:
“I think IFRA Expo continues to be possibly the best show in the market for the newspaper industry. I think this year has been very good as we had a good quality of visitors.”
Klaus Schmidt, Vice President/Director Marketing, Koenig & Bauer AG
“In the present economic situation, we are very satisfied with IFRA Expo as regards both the quantity and the quality of the visitors. The customers have recognised that they will not safeguard the future if they bury their heads in the sand. We had many highly promising contacts for new Cortina projects in France and Scandinavia, and I am confident that they will lead to firm orders during the coming year.”
Thomas Hauser, Vice President Corporate Marketing and Communications, manroland AG:
“Due to the current economic conditions, we naturally travelled with mixed feelings to Amsterdam. However, our expectations were more than fulfilled. The customer presence and on-site discussions were good. (…) In times such as these, it is important to look ahead and show our industry long-term possibilities, prospects and opportunities. Accordingly, we are giving a clear signal with our new ‘autoprint’ product line and the ‘One Touch’ vision for total automation of the production process. (…) We will continue to work for the benefit of our customers and the development of our industry, and in doing so make full use of IFRA Expo as an important communication platform.”
Carsten Althaber, Director of Marketing, Vjoon (formerly Softcare)
“We are satisfied with the exhibition and our numbers of visitors. We had mainly customers from Europe, but also contacts from Asia and especially India. Besides the introduction of our new Vjoon brand name, the focal point of our exhibition presence was the complete product relaunch of K4. We were able to announce the signing of a contract with the WAZ media group for the supply of more than 120 workstations during the exhibition. This will be our 300th installation, with a total of more than 15,000 K4 users.”
Jeroen Sonnemans, Managing Director of WoodWing Europe: “The introduction of Content Station clearly motivated people to visit our booth. Weve experienced an increase of about 15% in people visiting our booth compared to last year. It has been a fantastic event for us, and it shows that we’re really addressing the needs for online publishing with our products.”
IFRA Expo 2009 again in Vienna
Next years exhibition will take place from 12-15 October 2009 in Vienna. This will be the second occasion that the city on the Danube has acted as the location for the leading industry exhibition.