It’s been a long time since so many graphic professionals and other related professions gathered in Slovenia in one place as last moth at the Print21 & PromoDays fair in Ljubljana.
Gospodarsko Razstavisce Hall hosted the biggest fair organized by Print Magazine in terms of exhibition area and number of exhibitors. 35 exhibitors presented their offer on about 3,000 m2, while about 1,500 people visited the fair during both days.
That this is an important event for the graphic industry of Slovenia, in their opening greetings mantioned Mr. Blaz Cvir, president of the The Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Sloveniaa and Mr. Bernard Bucik, president of the Graphic artists’ section at the Chamber.
The following companies presented their offer at the fair: Arc24, CDS, COB Industries, Cron, Dipa, DRM, Etiketa printing house, Eurocop, Eurotrade/USB.Si, Falk&Ross, Fortuna Digital, Gajcom, Gian, Graphic Center, Guandong, Igepa Pako, Ino, Klio, Konica Minolta, MDS, Mega Dizajn, Modico/Inspirion, MVM Servis, NaniPrint, Nanodiy, N.C.R. Ljubljana, OG grafika, Prima IP, Recom, SDX, Sign Trade, Sistrade, STH, Terplan, Uni Biro.
As it was announced, the fair in Ljubljana was a combination of two fairs. Print21 fair is already well-known among graphic industry of the region. PromoDays is fair aimed to a promotional product industry with the really big potential.
Machines and devices of the world’s leading brands
Print21 is already a well-known trade fair for graphic technologies, solutions and applications. It is focused mostly on digital printing and covers almost all its segments, from small applications to large formats. About 20 exhibitors in the print section showed the solutions of the world’s leading brands in digital printing.
There were machines for everyone: digital production printers for sheet media, latex and UV printers, eco solvent printers, resin printers, print&cut solutions, flatbed printers, sublimation solutions, engravers, solutions for digital label printing, DTF and DTG solutions, thermal presses, finishing solutions, different types of materials, foil, software solutions…
When it comes to attractiveness, we will not make a mistake if we single out two solutions that, due to their size, absolutely captured the most attention of visitors. The first one was at the entrance, at the STH stand. It was ROQ automatic screen printing carousel with intermediate dryer and a tunnel. The second one was at the N.C.R. stand, a 3.2 meter long Efi Pro 30h hybrid printer. Both already have users in the region.
Regarding the interest, from everything we have seen, it seems that the greatest interest has been in DTF printers. We counted as many as 14 DTF machines.
In addition to DTF, finishing solutions were also surrounded by a lot of noise.
Always popular wrap corner was also crowded. At the Fortuna Digital stand the world-famous wraper Dimas Brasil led a training on the secrets of a good wrap. He worked with the innovative Image Perfect 2D SuperGlide material.
PromoDays
The PromDays fair, after Zagreb last year, saw its second edition in Ljubljana. It brought together renowned regional and European suppliers and manufacturers of promotional products, business gifts, souvenirs and textiles.
In addition to traditional and well-known promotional products, such as t-shirts, which according to research still have the status of one of the most desirable promotional products, mugs, diaries, umbrellas, pillows, pens, lighters, usb sticks, bags, calendars, bags, boxes, POS materials…, made up the majority of the offer. The Gian / Sublimazione.it company made sure that everyone who wanted to go home with a mug with the Print21 & PromoDays logo on it.
it is clear why the global promotional products industry is worth around 23 billion dollars and is still growing. However, accordingly, the demands of clients are also growing, and branding and personalization are part of these demands. This is where printing comes into play, so from that point of view, the combination of the Print21 fair and PromoDays makes a lot of sense.
Little bit of education, playing and coffee
The Ljubljana edition also brought an interesting educational corner organized in cooperation with Chamber. Some very current topics were covered in the eight lectures.
Dr. Gorazd Golob spoke about the state and perspectives of the printing industry. Dr. Igor Karlovits from the Institute of Pulp and Paper from Ljubljana spoke about the increasingly important environmental aspect of graphic products. The attention of the visitors was also attracted by the panel on the topic of DTG and DTF. The companies Guandong, Konica Minolta, MVM Solutions, Roland and Xerox also presented the potential of their technologies.
The company STH took care of the fun by organizing a pinball contest. They had a pinball machine set up on their booth and the person who achieved the best result during the two days was awarded with a DTF printer from their offer. It was tense until the very end. Literally 20 minutes before the end of the competition, a new record was broken. The DTF printer went to 0903.studio from Zagreb.
As part of the fair, an interesting competition for high school students was held, organized by Symbol Group and Brother. With in the “DTG T-shirt Design Contest”, the students’ task was to come up with a design on the subject of artificial intelligence (AI). The 12 best designs were printed on T-shirts that were displayed during the fair. According to the opinion of the jury, the view of AI was best demonstrated by a 3rd grade student from the School of Applied Art and Design from Zagreb.
Important part oft he fair was also well-known Print Magazin Coffee Corner. During both days, free soft drinks, sweet and savory pastries were provided for all exhibitors and visitors. A small corner which, the exhibitors tell us, means a lot.
To Print Magazi the questions of exhibitors and participants when the fair will be organized again in Ljubljana also means a lot. As planned, see you in two years.
Till then, take a look at the photo gallery! ¨
