Sign of the times--digital vendors overtake offset at Ipex 2010

The folks at Ipex 2010 rolled out their Media Summit last week in London with presentations from Canon  Europe, CP Bourg, Domino Printing Services, Fujifilm Europe, Oce, Pitney Bowes, Red Tie,  Ricoh, and Xerox.  You can get the gist of what they are planning to show here, but the real news was in some of the comments about the show from Trevor Crawford, event director for Ipex.

If you've been to Ipex or Drupa in the past, you know that these shows are defined by the huge presence of folks like Heidelberg and MAN Roland.  This year's biggest exhibitor?  HP, with a stand over one-third bigger than they had at Ipex 2006 at 32,000 square feet.  Not an offset press to be found there.

Digital vendors will occupy 38% of the show floor this year compared with 26% for offset--exactly reversing the numbers from four years ago.  Heidelberg alone is downsizing by half its presence on the show floor.