When the three industry associations VISA, GASAA and POPAI decided to team-up with the Retail Exhibition and Conference 2010 last week at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre for the co-located events the question remained; Would co-locating the separate but related expos help or hinder visitor numbers? With the official numbers in, the answer is a resounding success, with show attendance numbers up across the board.

The Visual Impact Suppliers Association has reported a 30% increase in visitors from last year to its VIIE show in Halls 1 & 2 of the SCEC. The Retail Exhibition in Hall 3, organised by Diversified Exhibitions Australia, saw a jump in excess of 20% from the same time last year. The GASAA run PrintWorks Expo 2010, a first time event, added over 1,000 extra visitors to the busy central Hall 2. POPAI's Marketing at Retail Expo increased visitors to its co-located show also in Hall 2 with a strong visitor registration and movement across all halls.

Aggregate attendance numbers were impressive as well. Total visitors to the VISA/GASAA shows was 4,663 over the 3 days with almost 10% attending the show on more than one day. GASAA Executive Officer, Garry Knespal said that the association was delighted with the early feedback from exhibitors and when drilling down on visitor numbers to the PrintWorks 2010 show the calibre of the attendees was also impressive. 64% of visitors registered for the GASAA show were senior decision makers of which more than a third described themselves as CEO’s or business owners. A further 13% were involved in purchasing and finance, supporting the comments from many exhibitors that high value sales were taken at the show. More than 20% of the GASAA Expo visitors were resident outside of NSW, with 3% of total visitors attending being from abroad including USA, Europe, Asia and Oceania and NZ.

Visitor numbers for the Retail Exhibition were similarly impressive with more than 4,500 people through the related event. Unique visitors to all 4 shows exceeded 6,500 with around 25% of visitors registering to attend more than one of the 4 co-located events. Around 15% of all show visitors returned to the Expo centre on more than one day. Crossover data between the 3 Halls was also very encouraging. 2,378 visitors were recorded having moved from the POPAI/Retail show into VISA/GASAA events. A similar number (2,421 visitors) moved in the other direction. The strong movement of visitors between the various shows highlighted the interest and relevance of the related expos.

All in all, the co-location concept worked well to increase visitor traffic for exhibitors and broaden the appeal to show visitors seeking to get a broad perspective of the display, print and retail marketing sectors. Plans are well advanced for the co-location partners to strengthen ties even further through co-operation for the 2011 expos.

Digital press and prepress supplier Dainippon Screen Australia has hailed the combined PrintWorks and Visual Impact exhibition last week as a complete success.

“It really worked for us,” says Northern Region Manager Peter Scott. “At one stage we had three of the top four printing companies in the ANZ region on our stand, inspecting the quality of the Truepress Jet 520CP output.”

Scott has achieved YouTube fame by being interviewed at PrintWorks by Nick Evershed of The Newspaper Association about digital printing in newspapers. It can be viewed here

Over the three days of PrintWorks, we have logged in excess of twenty interested parties in SCREEN’s Truepress Jet520 high volume inkjet family and over a dozen good leads on our wide-format UV printers. PrintWorks entrance signage was produced on our Truepress Jet 2500UV using Enviroboard™MR material, and served as a good reference to the 1500dpi quality of this machine.

Scott concludes, “The co-location of the events was a success and the timing was perfect. We are going to be very busy following up all the interest in the coming weeks!”

With a trip to Graph Expo in Chicago next week to attend the launch of the new 220 metre/minute Truepress Jet 520ZZ and entry-level 520EX, Peter Scott’s diary is looking quite full!

(Photos: SCREEN’s stand at Printworks and Peter Scott portrait)

Exhibitors and visitors were on a high after a great three day event and GASAA can announce that the associations’ first ever print Expo was a success. With almost 5,000 visitors to the GASAA Expo and Visual Impact Image Expo’s, exhibitors were kept busy with a range of visitors from the printing and graphic arts industry. Co-locating with the Marketing at Retail Expo and Retail Expo and Conference also paid off, with almost 1,500 visitors coming across to the GASAA Expo from the two exhibitions.

“The expo was an invaluable opportunity to network with both suppliers and potential customers, and we were able to develop many high quality sales leads,” commented David Leach of Look Print.

Fellow exhibitor from the supply side of the industry, Peter Scott of Dainippon Screen said of the expo

Taking the extra space at the GASAA 2010 expo meant we were able to showcase for the first time in Australia the Truepress Jet520 inkjet press to the many thousands of visitors to the combined shows… strong interest was shown from some of the largest printers in the country attending the show.”

GASAA Executive Officer Garry Knespal was delighted with the success of the show, stating

In its first year we’ve had strong and positive feedback from all of our exhibitors, and it has been a pleasure working with fellow organisers VISA, POPAI and Reed Exhibitions. We look forward to putting on a bigger and even better show in 2011.”

Printers, suppliers and creatives kicked back and had a great time at the very first GASAA Printovation Awards where the Greek hair-gel goddess herself, Effie, was on hand to give a “tongue in cheek” commentary on the print industry. Held at the Harbours Edge events centre in Darling Harbour, guests mingled and were entertained as they overlooked the harbour, and seven award winners took home prizes for innovative work. These included:

Wide Format

Winner: Building Art by Look Print (NSW)

Highly Commended: Body of Work 2:1 by Armstrong Q (NSW)

Offset/Web

Winner: Fluoro7 Ltd by Fluoro Publications (VIC)

Digital (Non-variable)

Winner: It’s Weird in Here by Print Portal (NSW)

Digital (Variable)

Highly Commended: YellowPostie Cards by Freerange Creative (NSW)

General

Winner: PULP Business Cards by Watermarx Graphics (NSW)

Winner: RoyleBind Digital Printing onto Metalised Polyester by Royle Industries (VIC)

Awards chairperson Theo Pettaras commented that

The awards have been designed to encourage the printing industry to think outside the square and reinvigorate the industry, it is essential to find imaginative ways to look at print. We want these awards to become a highly innovative, annual event.”

Effie finished by joking

The Printovation Awards are the 'Wonderbra' of printing - they lift you up where you belong. Or, if you want, they are the Viagra of printing."