So the news on the street is that another new print exhibition has been launched in the UK. It's due to take place in September 2012 at Birmingham's NEC, and is simply called Digital Print UK.

As organiser of Sign and Digital UK, Faversham House Group has done commendable work with this exhibition which was acquired from Miller Freeman in the late 90s. Those were days where anything digital was beginning to impact on other trade show technologies and weaving this in with other sign-making processes was handled sensibly. Nonetheless, the move to incorporate ink-jet and wide-format production was largely industry driven and if exhibitors wanted to bring their printers along to the show, so be it.

But, with a show which concentrates on digital print for the commercial sector, I have to query the rationality behind staging such an event. Faversham House has proved that Sign and Digital UK has hit the number-one spot; it has a loyal band of followers and exhibitors who have been visiting the exhibition for years, aided by the steady flow of new technologies and the fact that it's a good place for a bit of networking.

Can the same evolution happen with a digital print show? Somehow I doubt it, and it's no-one's fault. We already have had various events for the commercial sector come and go, or teeter on the brink. And, of course, we have drupa and various other international events, plus there's a definite shift to narrower format at FESPA, if this year's exhibition was anything to go by.

And who are these commercial printers who'll trot up to Birmingham next September? In their own digital sector, and if they're ready to invest, surely they will have attended drupa? And, if they're looking more at new or related markets, they'll have visited Sign and Digital UK and FESPA Digital, too.

In the past 30 years many print-related shows have sunk without a trace. We've had Repro Workshop and Natprint and several other print exhibitions whose names I've long forgotten (and I'd love to be reminded). Sign shows, too, came and went but, in the old days, there was a clear delineation between one process and another and, if it was screen-printing or textile production you were after, then there were shows tailored for you.

Today technologies have merged and there's a tremendous overlap in exhibition participation. This year sees greater print influx at Itma, and more wide-format machines at Labelexpo. Next year it's a drupa year, too, which will eat into everyone's budgets. For Faversham House, I really hope that its new digital print event will work but the sceptic in me has doubts about both its raison d'être and its timing. I'd love to be proved wrong.