IFRA Expo 2009 a success, despite economy
"It is safe to say that the number of participants exceeded expectations, and it is gratifying that, in the midst of a global economic crisis, that so many people chose to make the trip to Vienna. We expect to do even better next year in Hamburg," said Reiner Mittelbach, co-CEO of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the organiser of the event.
"What we¹ve seen here is an industry responding well to the changing media landscape, and seeking solutions, both technical and strategic, to ensure profitability in the years ahead, in print and online."
The 39th annual exhibition included 284 exhibitors from 27 countries, including printing press manufacturers, editorial and advertising system providers, new media providers and other suppliers to the newspaper industry. The expo covered more than 11,000m2 of space at the Reed Messe Wien Exhibition Centre.
Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the United Kingdom were the most represented countries among visitors to the expo. One-quarter of the visitors were managing directors or CEOs, 13% were technical or production directors, and 13% were editors.
The event was accompanied by a series of seminars on a wide variety of newspaper topics, bringing top newspaper executives together to discuss the future of the industry. More from these events can be found on the WAN-IFRA Multiblog at www.wan-ifra.org/blogs/ifraexpo09.
WAN-IFRA presented the winners of the XMA Cross Media Awards 2009 at the exhibition. The focus of the awards was 'cross media design and branding'. This international media prize, presented for the fourth time, is awarded for successful examples of publishing on multiple channels (print, online, mobile, event, etc.). More on the competition, including the XMA 2009 Winners Book, can be found at www.ifra.com/xma. Publishing houses from Croatia, Germany, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom received awards.
The 2010 Expo will be held in Hamburg, Germany, from 4 - 6 October 2010, with a one-day conference to follow on 7 October.
Said Gabriella Franzini, group CEO of EidosMedia: "Certainly we had less companies than in the past, but the ones who came were here for real business. And, we had meetings with new companies, big companies, for the first time. So we are pleased."
Klaus Schmidt, vice president, director of marketing/corporate communications, Koenig & Bauer Aktiengesellschaft (KBA): "I think everybody in the industry has to come together in an expo like this. It makes sense to have these meetings because you can meet all the suppliers, many of the customers. The cost-benefit ratio of exhibitions like this is good.
"The industry will change, the role of newspapers will change, but the newspaper will still be the backbone of many activities. The core brand is the newspaper, and the brand can carry online activities."
Michael Medalyer, spokesperson for AbitibiBowater: "In terms of the show itself, this is our sixth year and our participation has vindicated every reason we had for exhibiting here six years ago; it is clearly the meeting place for not just our continental European customers but for customers from the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and we treat the expo very seriously. We fly in a big contingent of people from our headquarters in Montreal, all our agents from Europe, a team that looks after sales in Latin America and Asia Pacific and they have all been non-stop busy."
Steve Kirk, head of marketing, Centre of Excellence Printing, ABB: "It has been a very good expo for us. When I look at our reservations, we had at least as many visits as in the past couple of years. I suspect there has been a slight reduction in the number of people walking around, the spontaneous visits, but the number of pre-arranged visits has been very high. Its been a rewarding week for us. The IFRA Expo is the most important trade show for us. We meet all our customers and potential customers in four days, this is very efficient for us."
He said the tone of the Expo was set during the opening ceremony. "They spoke positively about the future of our industry and especially print. From my point of view that was an inspirational and motivational message for the audience."
