FESPA Digital 2012 is gathering pace with more than three quarters of available floor space at the February 2012 digital wide format print event in Barcelona, Spain (Fira de Barcelona, 21 – 24 February 2012) now sold. Over 200 individual exhibitors are confirmed on the floor plan for Hall 3 at the city’s Gran Via exhibition centre, and FESPA expects the final line-up to include over 350 principal exhibitors.
The 2012 event invites visitors to take a tour of the wider opportunities in digital print, to discover the numerous avenues for potential business growth. While exhibitors will showcase their latest technology solutions and services, FESPA will offer a selection of new visitor programmes built around specific development opportunities, comprising stand trails, tailored Explore conference sessions, and inspiration zones showcasing the expanding array of wide format applications.
Exhibition manager James Ford says, “Re-bookings for FESPA Digital 2012 were higher than we have ever experienced following the runaway success of our Hamburg FESPA Digital 2011 event in May this year. Feedback from exhibitors was glowing, and most wanted to stake their claim on the 2012 floor plan before the 2011 show even closed. European companies are excited about Barcelona as a destination for the next event, and naturally we are also experiencing heightened levels of interest from suppliers in southern Europe.”
FESPA Digital newcomers such as GMG Software, MHM, Novus Imaging, Papergraphics UK, Reggiani, Visual Magnetics, Xante Europe and X-Rite are enriching the range of exhibitors whose solutions will be on show in February next year, reinforcing the positioning of the event as an environment in which print service providers can explore the wider opportunities in digital. The Spanish supplier community is also supportive of the event, with major players such as Torraspapel, Emaser, Chimigraf and Digidelta commit to a substantial presence in Barcelona.
FESPA Fabric, the ‘show-within-a-show’ dedicated to garment printing and decoration, will remain a clearly defined and separately branded area of the FESPA Digital 2012 event, albeit more closely integrated within the overall exhibition space. James Ford explains: “Feedback from Hamburg was that exhibitors and visitors wanted FESPA Fabric to be a more integral element of the main show, and we have taken that on board in looking at how to present this feature in 2012. The exhibition space in Barcelona lends itself perfectly to a more unified event, and means that the entire exhibition space will be concentrated in a single hall, simplifying visitor orientation and navigation and generating a special ‘buzz’.”