Official settlement of the first drupa 2008 week for the world press

When the fair doors closed on Wednesday 4, drupa organizers offered a meeting for the world press. In the event – with music, drinks and entertainment – the president of drupa Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann did the balance of the first week. The main moments of this activity were shot by the CONLATINGRAF Portal staff.

According to the organizers drupa 2008 has got off to a more successful start than expected. In the first half of the world's largest and most important fair for the print media industry sales transactions worth more than 450 million Euro were concluded. Numerous exhibitors - including for example Agfa Gevaert, Goss, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, Hewlett Packard, Koenig & Bauer, manroland and Xerox – already reported specific orders from the first day of the fair onwards. The orders mainly came from Asia and Russia, but also from South America and Central European countries.

“By this evening 213,000 visitors from 115 countries had passed through the turnstiles – 64 percent of them international. The trend at the event is extremely positive”, said Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann, drupa President and CEO Koenig & Bauer AG. A look around the halls is all that is needed to recognize that a particularly large number of international visitors are using drupa as a platform for individual specialist discussions and an informative overview of the latest developments and trends in the market. As expected, the share of visitors from Asia has risen, in actual fact by 3 percentage points to 15.2 percent. Perhaps somewhat surprising was the increased interest from South and Central America at 7.4 percent compared to 4.7 percent in 2004.

The premiere of drupacube - the Symposium Location for Print buyers - has been positively received. The series of lectures this week is as good as sold out; the Magazine, Corporate Publishing and Direct Mailing lecture days in particular sold out very quickly. The drupa innovation parc, which with its total of over 130 exhibitors is the absolute focal point for innovations in the digital suppliers sector, is also reporting an extremely successful first half.

Up to 11 June in all 19 Düsseldorf exhibition halls, 1,971 exhibitors from 52 nations will show their latest new products and innovations in total net space of over 175,000 m², of which 104,202 m² is occupied by international companies. drupa is open daily from 10.00 to 18.00 hrs, at the weekend up to 17.00 hrs.