The successful Africa Print Gauteng expo, held from 21-23 April at Emperors Palace Convention Centre, attracted 1748 visitors. The event helped to re-energise the printing and exhibition industries, with visitors eager to see new products and cutting-edge technology.
Exhibitors were impressed with the event:
‘We were proud to be part of the first Africa Print Expo in over a year. The interaction was something that the industry has missed since Covid-19 shook the world and we found the engagements with visitors to be extremely robust, energetic and refreshing,’ said Abisha Katerere, Printing SA.
‘On a whole it was very, very successful three days,’ said Bradley Bate, Alliance Machinery. ‘We probably had in excess of 150 qualified leads at the show and the potential of 5 to 10 machines that we are negotiating at the moment, so it was very, very positive.’
‘It was quite a successful show – we achieved what we wanted to,’ said Gareth Fletcher, Kyocera. ‘The biggest thing was getting the exposure that we were after, which is really critical. We had some important clients that came through and we generated some nice leads. We introduced our new flagship product to the public for the first time and we are really looking forward to the expo in September.’
‘It was more than great,’ said Stephen Graham, Ivyline Group.
‘Initially we were a little concerned about attending the show due to Covid,’ said Grant Potgieter, Fujifilm. ‘It has been an incredibly good show and we’ve had an incredible amount of visitor interest. It’s been a great opportunity for us to showcase our full offering, whereas historically we showcase our wide format division. We had the opportunity and that has proved very fruitful for us. I’m quite exited about the leads that we’ve generated and the potential sales that will come from them.’
‘There were lots of new faces – not the regular customers you’re used to seeing. The first and last day of the event were very, very good,’ said Pooven Pillay, Roland DG.
‘I’m very impressed with the size of the show and the amount of people. I did not expect it to be this busy and I also did not expect there to be as many serious buyers as there were, so all in all it’s more impressive than what I was expecting,’ said Darryl Braithwaite, Midcomp.
‘We were pleasantly surprised regarding how many people actually visited the show and the interest in the specific machines,’ said Bernard Truter, Graphix Supply World. ‘We were concerned to a certain extent about the influence Covid would have had, but so far – we will see with the sales – the interest was been fairly high.’
Stand awards
Judges visited each stand at the expo and judged the stands according to criteria based on design, staff friendliness and professionalism.
The results are as follows:
Best medium stand (custom)
Winner: Fujifilm Graphic Systems South Africa.
Runner-up tie: Alliance Machinery and Ivyline Group.
Best large stand (shell scheme)
Winner: Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa.
Africa Print Expo
+27 11 568 1894
https://www.africaprintexpo.com
