On 16 September 2020, Europe's largest flexographic printing trade association - the DFTA - held its first virtual ProFlex 360 °. The members, all companies interested in flexo printing, interest groups and press partners were able to obtain digital information about flexo printing and gain new insights. The online format included an interactive exhibition hall for product and company presentations, video calls, live technical presentations in the plenum, a machine demonstration and a virtual meeting room.
Special circumstances, such as those provided by Corona, also demanded that the DFTA break new ground. With the "ProFlex 360°: real becomes digital", the DFTA developed a digital concept for its members and the packaging printing industry within a few weeks, which went live on 16 September 2020. Together with more than 100 participants and 18 exhibitors, Rainer Wilke (DFTA President) and Nicola Kopp-Rostek (Managing Director of the DFTA) opened the digital event and showed the participants how to find their way around the virtual platform and how to use the interactive tools built in by the association for voting, questions and suggestions.
"For us in the executive committee, it was very quickly clear that we did not want to postpone ProFlex again, but that we wanted to be there for our members with a virtual exhibition and digital formats. The advantage of this format was to present this in a time- and cost-saving way for the participants and, above all, to ensure the safety of all participants," said Rainer Wilke, President of the DFTA, in his opening address.
After the organisational part, some exhibitors had the opportunity to present themselves and their products in a 5-minute spotlight lecture. Prof. Dr. Martin Dreher (head of the DFTA Technology Centre) then gave a comprehensive overview of trends in flexo printing and Kai Lankinen (Marvaco) explained his topic around the extended colour space and gave answers to the question: whether environmental considerations, costs, foreign countries and digital printing are causing flexo printing to rethink.
Steve Walpuski (Colorcon), who provided the participants with information on printing inks for direct food contact, and Thomas Grünitz (Carl Ostermann Erben) spoke about Bellissima screening technology, what distinguishes it from other digitally modulated screens such as amplitude or frequency modulated screens, and about experiences and conclusions for future possibilities.
The print demonstration from the DFTA Technology Centre, created by the team around Prof. Dr. Martin Dreher, also offered the audience interesting insights into one of the important activities of the Technology Centre via the video contribution.
The current range of services offered by the DFTA Technology Centre was then presented in detail by Anke Frieser-Tausch (Deputy Director of the DFTA TZ).
However, the last presentation did not mark the end of ProFlex 360°, but rather pointed out to the participants that they had the opportunity to visit the exhibitor rooms until 5 p.m. and to talk to the companies via video call.
The participants particularly appreciated the opportunity to participate via smartphones, which was specially introduced by the association. Throughout the day, they had the opportunity to take part in voting, ask questions and thus provide the speakers and organisers with direct and anonymous feedback.
Rainer Wilke repeatedly answered the questions of the participants during the course of the event and was visibly satisfied with the way it worked. In conclusion, he also emphasised "that it was particularly important for him to find a format that allows a lot of interaction. This way, one has the feeling that one is at least somewhat connected to the participants.
All in all, those responsible for the ProFlex 360 ° draw a positive balance. Of course, such a format cannot replace personal meetings, and both the organisers and all exhibitors and participants had to familiarise themselves with the technical challenges, but it is precisely these valuable experiences that allow those responsible to look to the future with confidence. "With the digitalisation of ProFlex, we have immediately chosen a sophisticated event and the feedback from our participants encourages us to continue on the digital path and to examine real, hybrid or fully virtual events - always adapted to the circumstances - and to offer the best for the members, summarised DFTA Managing Director Nicola Kopp-Rostek.
www.dtfa.de