Industry luminary praises concept of PrintWorks 2010 & co-located tradeshows

Andy McCourt, McCourt Consulting and Communications, a highly regarded and widely published industry identity, has written a considered piece about the benefits of the GASAA PrintWorks 2010 event and the coming together of 4 other related tradeshows in Sydney in September 2010. Below are some highlights from Andy’s article in this week’s Print21Online: (for full details of Andy’s encouraging words click here).

It is with delight and admiration that I commend the convergence of, not two, but five trade events occurring at Sydney’s Darling Harbour in September. Not just because they have converged, but because of what it will deliver in benefits for both exhibitors and visitors. From Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd of September, visitors to the Visual Impact Image Expo (VIIE – itself a convergence of two competing shows), will enjoy the added presence of the following:
VIIE – the main event in terms of floor space and an increasingly popular one with over 7,000 delegates attending. Showcasing wide format, signage and display products and organized by VISA, the sign industry association.
PrintWorks – a new event staged by GASAA and showcasing the effectiveness of all print – not just wide format – as a communications medium.
PODi AppForum – the Print-On-Demand initiative, held for the past three years will be co-located with the other events.
POPAI – the Point-of-Purchase marketing event at Retail Expo, POPAI is a global association of both end users such as Cadbury, PepsiCo, Schweppes and Hasbro, and POP manufacturers plus equipment and materials suppliers.
Retail Expo 2010 – a combined exhibition and conference on retail techniques, fit-outs, technologies, the ‘store of the future’ and generally better retailing.
The above five events, plus conferences and awards, are co-located at the same time at Darling Harbour, with a single registration gaining entry to all of them.
The brilliance of this strategy is that it brings together the entire community of parties who use print and visual communication for commercial purposes. The retailers themselves (70 per cent of purchasing decisions are made in-store), will be there to see print applications they may never have otherwise seen. The point-of-purchase designers and specifiers will be there and, while they may never buy a five-meter wide UV digital printer, they certainly buy the various kinds of output such machines produce.
Who knows who else will turn up with the greater reach engendered by this co-operation? For sure the 7,000 visitor number mark will be smashed and could even get into the 10,000-plus area – towards a PrintEx kind of attendance figure."

Extract from an article by Andy McCourt, McCourt Consulting and communications, Print21Online, Monday 28 June 2010