drupa, the world's leading trade fair for print and cross-media solutions, will switch to a three-year cycle after the 2016 staging (May 31 - June 10). This decision was made by the drupa committee at the meeting this week in Düsseldorf, Germany. “The entire print process chain has changed radically because of the Internet and digital technologies. New applications and solutions are developing and opening up new fields of business. At the same time, there is more focus on innovative technologies, such as 3D printing, printed electronics and functional printing,” explains Claus Bolza-Schünemann, Chairman of the drupa Advisory Board and President of Koenig & Bauer Group. “It’s more important than ever before that our customers have an overview of the latest technology and are also inspired to use new business models and solutions. drupa is the only specialist trade fair in the world to offer this – and will do so every three years in the future.”
One positive side effect of this change is that drupa will no longer take place in 2020, the same year as interpack, the No. 1 international trade fair for the packaging industry and the closely related process industry. “For the drupa exhibitors who specialize in packaging printing, 2020 would have been an incredibly stressful year so the change will clearly benefit customers,” emphasizes Werner Matthias Dornscheidt, President & CEO of Messe Düsseldorf. The exact dates have not yet been finalized, but it is certain that drupa will take place in the traditional drupa month of May in 2019, 2022 and 2025 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
