The 'A' word is hitting all of us, but what austerity will mean for the year's industry events is anyone's guess. Of course the Olympics will be the big distraction, but this is an Olympic year in more ways than one, for 2012 is also a drupa year. Traditionally the Olympics of print, which takes place in Düsseldorf from May 3rd to 16th, is a black hole for fiscal and temporal resources, with suppliers pouring vats of money into stands and pre-event promotions, and visitors dropping out of normal life to spend many days and longer nights in Düsseldorf. The drupa organisers hope for a repeat and more so of the 2004 show when visitor numbers topped 391,000 and exhibitors did €10bn (￡8.2bn) worth of business. The combination of austerity, an enduringly harsh economic climate and alternatives for information gathering might make this a bit of a struggle for 2012.

Competition for drupa is also coming from other more specialised shows, such as FESPA Digital, which takes place in Barcelona next month. The FESPA shows are renowned for their levels of excitement and buzz, imagination and the hefty numbers of new product introductions on display. FESPA really does own the wide-format show space and many visitors will choose FESPA Digital over drupa precisely because it is a much smaller event. Specialised shows tend to be more manageable than the mega events, and this manageability can be more attractive to buyers who want to see everything they need to see in a single day.

The new year will see the print industry head to drupa and a wealth of other shows

We have seen this move to smaller more focused shows gaining momentum over the last few years, with drupa anchoring the market. Organiser Messe Düsseldorf has itself introduced digi:media, a three-day show for digital media and printing buffs. It will be part of drupa in 2012, but its success in 2011 suggests it is likely return as an independent event in 2013.

Not to be outdone by its Teutonic rival the UK owner of Ipex, another mega-show, is introducing a digital media event of its own. The idea is to develop a base from which to entice fresh faces to Ipex and thus maintain visitor numbers. Cross Media takes place from September 2nd to 4th in London and is for people who develop or want to use technologies for delivering messages across multiple channels. Both CrossMedia and digi:media aim to attract people beyond the graphic arts, such as designers, advertising executives, marketing executives and media professionals. Both anticipate that social phenomena in the digital arena will somehow translate into commercial activity. But in the words of Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of leading advertising and media services company WPP: 'a social network [is] not a commercial network. And therefore you use it commercially at your peril'.

I'm especially excited about EcoPrint, a brand new show that looks at environmental sustainability for the printing industry. I have to confess an interest here, since I've had a bit to do with the show's planning. We hope to present at EcoPrint the international standard for calculating the carbon footprint of print media products. We have been working on ISO 16759 for the last couple of years and very much hope it will be of interest to visitors to EcoPrint. The show takes place in Berlin from September 27th and 28th.

Even though this is a drupa year there will be another mega-show for those who prefer Chicago to Düsseldorf. Graph Expo takes place from October 7th to 9th and is traditionally the site of important product introductions. Xerox showed its waterless ink-jet CiPress at the 2011 event and, along with its competitors, will use Graph Expo to present its drupa introductions to the US market.

Despite the difficult economic climate we do not expect exhibition companies to withdraw local events that have been successful in the past. After all, exhibitions are a business like any other. Shows such as Sign and Digital or mediaPro in the UK will continue as long as exhibitors continue to sign on the dotted line. But this will be a year that forces many companies to think long and hard about their exhibition planning and marketing strategies, particularly given the social media hype. This will be an especially salutary experience if drupa or Graph Expo fail to deliver new buyers in sufficient quantities. We may be entering a period of specialism in shows, events focused on specific market needs or concerns that are otherwise lost in the mammoth events. Only the market can decide.