FESPA Digital’s move to Barcelona for last week’s 2012 event delivered a welcome business boost to its 350 exhibitors. With a target of 10,000 expected visitors, the final numbers surpassed all expectations with over 12,000 people making their way to Fira Barcelona Gran Via over the four day event.

Over 46% of visiting printers attended more than one day, bringing the total attendance to over 17,500. This represents a record breaking revisit rate for any FESPA Digital event over its 5 year existence, indicating that the breadth of technology on show, combined with the eight Explore-themed visitor features, gave most visitors a compelling reason to extend their visit.

The highest number of visitors came from Spain (45%), followed by the UK (6%), France (6%), Italy (6%) and Germany (4%). While these leading European markets for wide format print are typically well represented among visitors to FESPA events, the location of the 2012 show in Barcelona had a particularly positive impact on attendance from Iberia and France. In all, visitors attended FESPA Digital 2012 from over 111 countries.

Several noteworthy product launches kept the show buzzing with news of innovation and fresh opportunities, and exhibitors across the show floor reported enthusiastically about how the event met their business objectives, whether for actual sales, lead generation, awareness building and channel expansion.

Stefano Rogora, EMEA Marketing Supervisor, INX Digital comments, “FESPA Digital 2012 met our expectations in terms of visitors and business opportunities. We particularly appreciate the international extent of FESPA shows, which makes them stand out as unmissable events for INX Digital. INX Digital is putting a lot of effort in the promotion of both alternative inks and customised solutions targeting industrial markets and we are extremely pleased that FESPA Digital 2012 has captured this very diverse audience. We have engaged not only with PSPs, but also companies focused on industrial applications across different vertical markets who showed interest in our products and solution orientated approach.”

Johan Suetens, Marcomms Manager for Ink Jet, Agfa Graphics comments, “FESPA Digital 2012 has been a very good show for Agfa Graphics. The quality and number of visitors was better than we had expected and we are especially pleased with the Iberian and UK visitor numbers. We are looking forward to London in 2013!”

Andrea Negretti, President Italy Branch, d.gen comments, “FESPA is THE place to be for d.gen. It’s where we feel represented and recognised on an international basis and surrounded by a valuable community of prospects and customers. We are pleased with the sales results achieved and the positive reception our Teleios Grande textile printer received. d.gen is committed to the development and promotion of environmental friendly printers and we are proud that today the print industry is acknowledging our commitment and compelling proposition in this field.”

Print Shop Live!, FESPA’s live workflow showcase which took place for the first time in Europe, was a highlight of the event, with hundreds of print service providers joining moderated tours in English and Spanish. Big Buck$ Cafe, a working cafe highlighting a range of digital print applications was also a popular destination, with many visitors taking advantage of a coffee break to consider the opportunities to diversify their product offering. The Explore Conference, Planet Friendly Printing Zone, Textile Talk Theatre and Narrow Format Zone offered a range of opportunities for visitors to absorb the latest insights into technology, applications, business growth and sustainability.

FESPA Managing Director Neil Felton comments, “FESPA is an amazing organisation to be a part of and the experience I have had on the run up, and during Digital 2012 has been incredible. The feedback I received from visitors and exhibitors at FESPA Digital has also been overwhelmingly positive.

He continues, “Our aim to provide PSPs inspiration to explore the wider opportunities of print certainly seemed to resonate with visitors who voiced appreciation of FESPA’s sharp sector focus and our expert business-led content. FESPA is committed to investing in the success of our community, and bringing fun and vitality to each FESPA event”.

The next European FESPA exhibition is FESPA 2013, the flagship global ‘screen + digital + textile’ event, which takes place at ExCEL London from 25 to 29 June 2013.

FESPA Digital returns in Spring 2014, running from 20 to 23 May 2014 at Messe Munich, Germany.