drupa Thought Leadership

In the dynamic landscape of modern business, where innovation is the heartbeat of success, the convergence of digital print - or our own Nanography™ - and digitalization offers an unprecedented opportunity for big brands to reimagine their strategies, engage consumers on a deeper level, and unlock new avenues for growth.

It’s a big honour to have been invited to Germany for the first drupa in eight years. I know a lot of people have been very much looking forward to attending, although it goes without saying that the world and our industry have undergone significant changes since the previous exhibition in 2016.

The printing and packaging industry is facing a number of challenges driven by new technologies, global market dynamics and increased environmental requirements. In this environment, it is crucial to ally with strong partners who lead the way through innovation, commitment to quality and sustainability.

As today’s customers in commercial print demand greater personalization and faster turnaround around times, the flexibility, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of inkjet will see its stock soar during the year ahead and beyond.  

Packaging printers and prepress specialists today are looking to get more out of their flexo production. New technologies and techniques are driving flexo to a higher standard for packaging printing, transitioning flexo from craft-based to a more standardized, sustainable manufacturing process.

You read it more and more often: large retail chains are announcing that they are doing away with printed brochures. Their reasoning: less waste paper, less environmental impact, more sustainability. Sounds logical at first, but is it true? Is online marketing really more sustainable than print advertising? These questions cannot be answered unequivocally and there is no one-size-fits-all answer, even on closer inspection. But an approximation is possible.

Labels & Packaging, while being a resilient and stable industry, has been navigating a period of turbulence these past few years, and while persisting global pressures continue to pose challenges from disrupted supply chains and energy supply to the dwindling availability of talent, 2024 could be the tipping point for a new era to come.

The Publishing 2030 Accelerator sets out to build awareness of the opportunity to optimise the book supply chain and drive sustainable change. In this article, Canon Europe’s Hans Schmidbauer highlights the initiative and explores the second workstream, the Distributed Book Printing Network.

Broader plans of action to tackle deforestation and forest degradation that also includes wood (timber) and paper made from it. What’s the relevance to printing and drupa. Read on in this special insight from Konica Minolta.

Driven by the digitalization of our life, the landscape of commercial printing is continuously evolving. Once dominated by high-volume generic prints, it’s no secret that commercial printing is in secular decline. The pandemic has compounded these trends, and while we are seeing some signs of recovery in the general commercial market, the positive recovery is not quite at pre-pandemic levels.