Wide-format Blogs

With Drupa over for another four years and show season now slowing down, printers can perhaps focus a little less on the technologies they covet and more on exploring and fully utilising the capabilities of the technologies they’ve got, both in technical and strategic terms. The Out of Home DrupaCube session on Monday highlighted the need for print to become a more ‘vital’ part of the media mix. We have the technology…

It will be interesting to see how the print landscape has changed by the end of Drupa, with print companies looking for technologies that will not only make them more efficient in the processes they already use, but provide them the ability to strategically reposition themselves in markets that have higher margins and more growth potential.  There’s certainly plenty of evidence form orders placed at the show that screenprinters and commercial litho companies continue to see inkjet wide-format in that light.

As you’d expect there’s been a rush of news given that Drupa is in full swing, and despite it being far from a wide-format orientated event it is being hailed as an ‘inkjet show’ for the second time running. In the four years since the last show the technology has embedded itself as a core printing method, which is being witnessed by the breadth of its adoption across the mainstream as well as niche sectors as highlighted at this year’s Drupa. If you’ve not made the trip to Dusseldorf there’s still time…

Achieving goals indirectly

How do you make sure you’re not a casualty in the corporate stampede to exploit social media?

“Waiter! There’s a fly in my soup.” Customer complaints justified or otherwise, can be as unwelcome as a bluebottle doing the backstroke in your broth. Sure, we all claim customers are important to our business, but how we handle customer complaints, especially those we deem unfounded, is our litmus test. Most of us are big enough to hold up our hand and admit when we’ve messed up. Whether we’ve innocently mismanaged customers’ expectations or let them down catastrophically, lessons can be learned. 

Embark or miss the boat?

Well, Drupa has opened its doors and my senses are already being bombarded by all things print. Wide-format inkjet has its place here of course and I’ll keep you abreast of interesting developments as the show – and my journey around it – progresses. In the meantime, drop me a line if you see anything that catches your imagination so I can go and investigate…

As the UK member of the EDP it’s great to be able to announce the winners of the association’s annual awards and to applaud all those manufacturers who continue to push the envelope. No doubt Drupa will bring contenders for the next EDP awards!

Do any printers still take their partners with them when they go to trade shows abroad? Details of the scope of this year’s drupacity have left me wondering because it seems other halves could have a fab time indulging themselves in Dusseldorf while the rest of us slog it out in the Drupa halls. Otherwise, who’s going to benefit from all this?

It’s great to see companies involved in this sector winning Queen’s Awards, proving that there is plenty of innovation both in terms of product and strategic development. This year’s Widthwise Report focuses on innovation and what that means in business. You’ll find an overview in the soon to be published May issue of Image Reports magazine, with the full report available online in early June. If you think your company is highly innovative please get in touch.

What do you understand ‘sustainability’ to mean in terms of your company ethos? For so many printers it seems to mean little more than offering print using greener inks and materials, and perhaps offering a waste collection scheme. It may even stretch to monitoring and trying to reduce energy use in-house but that’s about as far as it goes. If you’re one of the still relatively small number of companies being more proactive than that please get in touch.