More than 21,000 individual visitors from 130 countries flocked to FESPA 2010 in Munich, Germany held during 21 to 26 June 2010, looking for innovative solutions and applications to help their wide-format businesses.   More than half of all visitors extended their stay beyond one day, taking total attendance to 32,504 visits.

A record 68% of visitors to FESPA 2010 highlighted digital technology as a priority interest area, compared with less than 52% three years ago at FESPA 2007 in Berlin.  This equated to a digitally-oriented visitor audience at this year’s event of almost 15,000 printers, more than 50% greater than the visitors at FESPA’s last European Digital event in Amsterdam in Spring 2009 (9682 visitors).

67% of FESPA 2010 visitors make or influence major purchasing decisions, underlining the event’s global reputation as the ‘must-attend’ international wide format imaging event for business owners and senior managers. 

FESPA sales and marketing director Marcus Timson said, “From the first hour of the first day, the atrium entrance was bursting with visitors eager to get into the halls quickly and do business.  Talking to exhibitors and visitors throughout the show, it’s clear that FESPA 2010 has been an event where major decision-makers came with specific business objectives, whether to review particular technologies, meet with chosen vendors, or participate in conference sessions that would deliver measurable value to their business.  Printers in this post-recession era are results-driven, singling out solutions that will quickly make them more competitive, help them access new business opportunities, or simply improve their bottom line.”

Exhibitors across all five halls at the show endorsed this impression of FESPA as a show where serious business was being done, day in day out.  All major vendors hailed the show an out-and-out success in terms of sales generation and relationship-building, seeing it as a clear indication of the sector’s return to strength after the challenges of the global recession.

Printers from Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland were consistently among the top five visitor groups, comprising 12,352 visitors in total, an increase on their collective attendance at FESPA 2007 in Berlin.  Elsewhere in Europe, the UK, France, Spain, Poland and Czech Republic also delivered significant visitor groups.  40% of total attendance came from Germany, a further 50% from the rest of Europe, 7.5% from Asia, and the balance from the Americas and Africa.