PRINT4ALL: New Dates, Same Drive to Innovate
14 July 2020: Print4All changes date. The appointment is now in Fiera Milano (Italy) from 3 to 6 May 2022. The postponement of several European trade fair events dedicated to printing, which were originally slated to be held during these months concerned by the health emergency, has upset the international trade fair scene and the presence of other events at dates close to Print4All would have prevented some companies from properly deciding where to focus their attention and investments.
For this reason, a new date was set for the event that springs from the collaboration between ACIMGA (Italian Manufacturers Association of Machinery for the Graphic, Converting and Paper Industry), ARGI (Italian Graphic Industry Suppliers Association) and Fiera Milano and is dedicated to all aspects of the printing world (converting, package printing, labelling, commercial and industrial printing) to support the market better. The new dates were announced in preview during the Print4All Conference, the annual meeting of the sector, which took place in live streaming on June 24.
Organised by ACIMGA, the 2020 Conference entitled “Future Factory – Printing the future, now ” was the ideal restart step to gear up for the main event. Attended by over 1,200 participants, 33% of whom international, the importance of this appointment for the printing community as an opportunity for exchange, updating and taking stock of the issues that will be at the heart of the exhibition project was demonstrated once again.
The past few months have forced everyone to rethink their production and industrial processes, revealing the importance of technological innovation, as well as the resilience and flexibility of single companies, even more clearly. Not by chance, the Conference focused on the issues of sustainability and Industry 4.0 that if appropriately seized can turn a crisis into an opportunity. If Industry 4.0 is the key for efficiency (and, therefore, connecting, integrating processes, decentralising), sustainability means effectiveness, and therefore attention to the environment but also the economic and social impact that production carries with it.
Therefore, we must restart by aiming straight at these objectives, grasping the advantages that the lockdown has indirectly left behind, such as the Digital Transformation, that imposed a pervasive, high-performing leap forward in the use of existing technologies to respond to the emergency, the ability to develop smart solutions, because printing promptly adapted to new methods and new media, and the drive to build a new normality, a real paradigm shift in which digitisation, Industry 4.0 and sustainability can no longer be an option.
Further away from home, according to IPAMA, India is aiming to return to normal within 6-9 months. Although production was down by 50% in June 2020, the prospect is to reach 70% in a month’s time.
The United States which saw a 5% recession for the printing sector do not expect recovery to begin until 2021 (APTech estimates).
Finally, printers in China are focusing on new technologies and integration, after the market suffered a more than 30% blow in recent months according to data from the PEIAC association.
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