The Africa Print Expo, co-located with the inaugural FESPA Africa, held at Gallagher Convention Centre from 2-4 July 2014, attracted 5460 visitors from across Africa and overseas, with an 11% increase of attendees from outside South Africa compared to Africa Print 2013. The exhibition attracted visitors from nearly 40 countries, with the top five countries represented outside of South Africa being Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Exhibitors noted an increase in attendee quality and the statistics confirm this. Over 67% of visitors were owners and from senior management and over half had final purchasing authority. ‘Exhibitors also reported onsite sales, quality leads and positive feedback both on the new venue, and overall feel of the event, which contributed to its success,’ said Dyelan Copeland event organiser.
Raymond Waldeck, Managing Director at Antalis South Africa supports this view, ‘The show was very dynamic, there was a great deal of energy and many new technologies were shown. We made many sales at the expo and generated real leads. The quality of the visitors was very high and we interacted with business people from around the African continent, which shows the credibility of the FESPA brand.’
‘The Africa Print exhibition gave us an excellent opportunity to showcase our products and capabilities to the digital market in Africa. We were very pleased with the numbers of high quality visitors who visited our stand and the number of valuable new contacts we made,’ said Tony Cox, Business manager, Sun Chemical Limited.
According to Patrick Lacy, CEO of Printing SA, Africa Print and FESPA Africa was the venue for converters and suppliers to meet and explore business opportunities. The PRINTING SA representatives who attended the FESPA Munich Exhibition in May were greatly impressed with the wide range of technology on display and disappointed that so few South Africans were able to attend. The FESPA Africa Exhibition corrected that.
‘The show was fantastic! The leads are already paying off and we sold out during the show,’ said Chayce Strydom, Marketing and Support, Modico Africa.
‘We thank the Africa Print team for their brilliant organisation of the event. It was a huge success,’ said Neal Oliver, IPEX Machinery.
Major highlights at the event include:
Platinum sponsor Xerox unveiled the Versant 2100 Press. The 100 page-per-minute device, versatile for any production environment, combines speed, exclusive image quality and automation features to create colourful personalised communications, collateral, brochures, photo publishing and specialty products.
Canon launched the imagePRESS C800. It offers the versatility to create extensive and innovative applications across a wide range of media, including heavyweight coated stocks and envelopes, and can flexibly handle everything from short runs to complex variable data printing for personalised print communications.
Antalis South Africa showcased the Kodak NEXPRESS printing with Gold HD ink. The KODAK NEXPRESS Gold Solution enhances any application printed on a NEXPRESS Press including direct mail, catalogues, posters, business cards, certificates, photo merchandise, dust jackets and book covers, labels, ads and flyers, and virtually any other type of corporate, marketing or sales communication.
Konica Minolta South Africa showcased its award-winning range of presses, including the bizhub PRO & PRESS C1060L and C1070, which are perfect for print providers in a light to medium level production environment.
The next Africa Print Expo will take place from 22-24 July 2015 at Gallagher Convention Centre.
