drupa 2021 to be cancelled and goes online as ‘virtual.drupa’ –
Next edition from 28mat to 7 june 2024
Following close consultation with exhibitors and partners, the 2021 edition of drupa, the world’s leading trade fair for Printing Technologies, will be cancelled due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The next event will take place as scheduled from 28 May to 7 June 2024. To maintain the momentum until then, the organisers will be holding a four-day digital event titled ‘virtual.drupa’, to take place from 20 to 23 April 2021 during the time frame drupa was originally scheduled for.
“The pandemic has caused a great deal of uncertainty among exhibitors and visitors in terms of their attendance at drupa 2021. Travel restrictions and budget constraints have further exacerbated the situation in the printing industry”, explains Erhard Wienkamp, COO at Messe Düsseldorf. “We have taken this decision in consultation with our partners, who are entirely supportive of it. It was preceded by a detailed process of considering the current conditions and the needs of the industry.”
Claus Bolza-Schünemann, Chairman at König und Bauer and president of drupa, welcomes this approach: “A virtual event is exactly the right format in the current time”, he says. “Attending drupa under the usual parameters was just too great a risk for many exhibitors, given declining export and turnover figures, as well as significant travel restrictions, which would also affect visitors. The new digital forum is a virtual platform, providing a reliable pillar and an opportunity to maintain valuable communications within the industry until 2024.”
Launched in October, the drupa preview platform already offers an impression of what ‘virtual.drupa’ will look like. It will give companies the opportunity to showcase themselves and their innovations virtually, as well as maintain existing contacts and establish new ones via the matchmaking feature. In addition, the conference schedule of the five drupa hot spots will provide key incentives and set the agenda for an online transfer of knowledge. For instance, international speakers from vertical markets will present success stories of Future Technologies in the Cube, outlining the future of our industry.
Interpack – may 2023
In agreement with its partners in associations and the industry, and with the trade fair advisory committee, Messe Düsseldorf has decided to cancel both interpack and components 2021, scheduled to take place from 25 February to 3 March, due to the restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have done everything we can to do justice to interpack’s tremendous importance for the processing and packaging industry, even during this pandemic – above all because we have received encouragement from the industry in support of a face-to-face event and have a hygiene concept that has been tried and tested in practice in place to protect everyone involved. Ultimately, however, feedback from our exhibitors has shown that the uncertainty is too great, and we are thus unable to host an interpack event that would meet the standards of a leading international trade fair,” explains Wolfram N. Diener, CEO of Messe Düsseldorf. “On 25 November, the Federal Government and the German states decided to implement stricter measures in Germany, and to possibly even extend these measures into the new year. This, unfortunately, does not give cause for hope that the situation will improve significantly over the course of the coming months. This will affect all Messe Düsseldorf events in the first quarter. We are now focussing on the next edition of interpack, which will take place in May 2023 according to plan, and which we will supplement with extended online offers,” Diener goes on to explain.
Messe Düsseldorf had offered registered exhibitors special conditions for their participation and at the same time granted them an extraordinary right of termination for those companies that were unable or unwilling to take part.
“Besides the unique market coverage, it provides, interpack is primarily characterised by the direct exchange of information between market-leading companies and top decision-makers for brand names around the world. This is exactly what is now largely prevented by continuously high infection numbers in core Europe and the associated and continuing travel restrictions and quarantine regulations. We therefore welcome Messe Düsseldorf’s decision to cancel interpack 2021 and are focussing on interpack 2023,” says Christian Traumann, President of interpack 2021 and Managing Director & Group President at Multivac Sepp Haggenmüller SE & Co. KG.
