Fespa was held in Germany, May 15 to 18. It reinforced its standing as the global landmark event for specialty printers, with visitors from a record 142 countries.

Two-thirds of all visitors dedicated more than a day to the event to cover the ten exhibition halls and take advantage of the expanded content program.

Germany delivered the largest percentage of visitors overall, with 26 per cent of the total audience coming from the host country. After Germany, the top ten countries in terms of visitor attendance were the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden.

The dominant area of visitor interest was digital printing, which was the key focus for 44 per cent of all visitors. Fespa’s sustained coverage of innovations in textile printing was reflected in the fact that one in three 2018 visitors indicated an interest in textile and fabric printing. Commercial print, finishing, design to print, sublimation printing and industrial printing also featured particularly strongly among visitors’ priorities for the event.

The optimism of the market as a whole was evident in the energetic mood throughout the exhibition halls. Exhibitors across the show reported excellent business and strong interest from print service providers in technology and consumables innovations to drive greater productivity and applications diversity.