FESPA 2013 fast becoming 'an unmissable event' for printers

With a year to go until the event opens, FESPA 2013 in London (ExCeL London, 25th to 29th June 2013) is going from strength to strength and fast becoming next year’s unmissable exhibition for printers.

More than 310 exhibitors have already confirmed their bookings for FESPA 2013, nearly doubling the exhibitor numbers in comparison to the run up to Munich in 2010. Many exhibitors also plan to expand their presence compared with previous shows, adding more exhibition space to showcase their products.

The same exhibitors who attended Munich in 2010 have expanded their space in London by 10%. As a result, FESPA 2013 will be the biggest FESPA show ever, with two more halls added to the original floor plan.

The event - which embraces screen and textile printing as well as digital wide format - will take place at the state-of-the-art ExCeL London exhibition centre in the City’s vibrant Docklands area. ExCeL’s halls will play host to the richest showcase yet of printed graphics, signage, promotional print, industrial print and garment decoration.

The success of FESPA Digital 2012 in Barcelona earlier this year motivated the strongest ever re-booking from those exhibitors. By the end of February, FESPA had bookings for 108% of the space occupied by the Barcelona show. Major industry players HP, Canon Océ, Fujifilm, Agfa, Mimaki, EFI, Durst, Roland, inks producer Sun Chemical and global screen printing suppliers SAATI and Sefar are all confirmed as exhibitors for 2013. There will also be a large presence of media companies including 3M, Hexis, Mactac and Orafol, highlighting the new print applications that substrates are opening up for printers. FESPA Fabric 2013, the event’s garment decoration exhibition, already has support from leading textile printing companies Kornit, Siser, Anajet, MHM, Polyone Wilflex, SRoque and international screen printing manufacturer M&R.

FESPA's managing director, Neil Felton, comments, “This immediate and resounding commitment to FESPA in London reflects the positive attendance at the Digital 2012 show, which demonstrated the FESPA team’s ability to maximise a new host city to refresh our visitor audience. The move to Barcelona brought our exhibitors a truly international audience from 120 countries, while many Iberian visitors - who represented over 45% of attendance â€" were new to FESPA.”

He continues, “Our move to London for 2013 will enable us to make FESPA’s flagship show a truly global event, attracting printers and their customers from every continent. More people can reach London from more locations in less time than any other city in the world. With its matchless heritage in print, business, communication and design, it’s the ideal destination for this show.

Since the last flagship FESPA in 2010, FESPA has delivered an active programme of exhibitions and summits in Latin America and Asia. With our unique network of 37 National Associations in Europe, Asia, Australasia, and the Americas, and a global community of thousands of PSPs, we’re confident that the London 2013 event will have a more international flavour than ever before.”

FESPA is exploring many avenues to extend the reach of the event, and to incorporate innovative content-led visitor features, some of which were introduced for the first time in Barcelona, and some of which will make their debut on London.

Neil Felton concludes, “While still in the early stages of planning, our vision is to deliver a FESPA 2013 event that is bursting with ideas to motivate and inspire our visitors, and which reflects the colour and dynamism of the host city. FESPA 2013 will reflect everything that is trending in screen, digital and textile print, strongly backed by the leading vendors and organisations in the industry. We look forward to revealing even more of FESPA’s exciting news over the next few weeks and months, including new areas, features and conferences that will run alongside or at the show.”