The "Grafitalia days" to debut by the end of the year
The news was announced by Guido Corbella during the Federgrafica assembly
Grafitalia, the exhibition defined by two specific market researches as the standard-setting event for graphic arts, reschedules the next edition, initially planned for next year, to 2017. The brand will label a program of technology-oriented events that will lead up to the exhibition, now scheduled the year after the German show Drupa.
The news regarding the exhibition dedicated to graphic arts technology and to the entire community of the communication, marketing, printing, publishing and graphic design industries has been announced by Guido Corbella, CEO of Centrexpo – the company producing Grafitalia – in his speech during the Federgrafica assembly.
"Centrexpo, whose mission is to serve the market, has carefully considered the difficulties the printing market is going through – said Corbella. Such difficulties are causing strong uncertainty in technology investment decisions". Similar scenarios can be found across the world, not just in Italy, though the situation in the country is particularly challenging.
In light of these considerations, the 2015 edition of Grafitalia was postponed to a more favourable time for the industries it targets. This decision was approved by industry associations including Assografici (the Italian Printing and Paper Converting Industries Association) and Argi (the Association of Italian Agents and Distributors of Machinery, Systems and Products for the Graphic Industry).
The rescheduling was also supported by the results of two surveys, one performed by Centrexpo with Assografici and the other carried out independently by Argi. Both point to Grafitalia as the only standard-setting exhibition for the Italian graphic arts market – one more reason not to damage the brand with a below-par edition. In addition, Grafitalia's new dates will allow to see the prototypes displayed at Drupa – taking place the year before Grafitalia – actually operational and running, which is a particularly appreciated characteristic in the South European graphic arts market.
It is also true that, if on one hand the current challenging scenario restricts the possibility to welcome new technologies, the industry still needs continuous updates on the latest developments. For this reason Centrexpo decided to keep the interest high by organizing the "Grafitalia days": events/debates dealing with specific topics of current interest for the industry. The exhibition's steering committee is already working on the calendar and the first "Grafitalia days" will take place before the end of 2014.
