Today, 20 April 2021, drupa opened its virtual doors. Around 17,000 registered visitors from 155 nations have already benefited from 660 minutes of inspiring, cutting-edge topics in the Conference Area and 930 minutes of Live Web Sessions and networked with 212 exhibitors from 45 countries in the Exhibition Space and Matchmaking Plaza. The international print & packaging community will meet at virtual.drupa and participate in top-class Key Notes, Panel Discussions and Live Web Sessions until 23 April 2021. Valuable insights, industry trends and technological innovations will provide impetus for the development of business potential.
The international participation of exhibitors and visitors underlines the importance of the virtual event. The first day of the show already recorded 222,000 page impressions from all over the world; 7,500 visitors took part in the conference programme alone. The success is also documented by the participation of major global players as exhibitors and virtual.drupa event partners – including Bobst, DuPont de Nemours, Electronics For Imaging, Esko, Fujifilm, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, HP, IST Metz, Koenig & Bauer, Kodak, Komori, Konica Minolta, Kurz, Kyocera, Landa, Siemens, Stora Enso, Windmöller & Hölscher, Xeikon and many more.
Sabine Geldermann, Director Print Technologies, draws a positive conclusion from the first day of the event: “We are pleased that the interaction within the community has started so positively. The impressive range of valuable knowledge transfer in the Conference Area and the Exhibition Space, as well as the exchange with business partners via matchmaking in the Networking Plaza, are being excellently received.”
The day was opened together with drupa President Claus Bolza-Schünemann and a subsequent Key Note by Wallstreet Journal Bestselling Author and Innovation Partner Michael Gale. Afterwards, presentations, best cases and talks by top speakers, partners, associations and exhibitors provided impulses on the topics of “Artificial Intelligence” and “Circular Economy” as well as the latest innovations on the market. Until Friday, the focus will additionally be on “Connected Consumer” and “Platform Economy”. The event days will be opened by the top-class key note speakers James Sommerville, Gabrielle Walker and Michael Gale, who bring special expertise in the areas of design thinking, sustainability and digitalisation respectively.
In the course of the day, all other presentations in the interactive conference programme also referred to important questions that move the industry, such as: What role does AI play in the print and packaging industry? How can workflows and processes be optimised thanks to digitalisation? How does product design drive innovation? And what role will the circular economy play in the industry? Whether specific use cases or long-term strategies for the future – the visions of renowned industry experts inspire, provide orientation and help to develop concrete measures. In this way, virtual.drupa promotes innovation and valuable knowledge transfer, reveals business potential and gives participants a competitive edge.
Visitors from other time zones who were unable to follow the presentations live will have the opportunity to access the sessions 24/7 on demand via the Video Library and then network with exhibitors for a personal exchange via Matchmaking in the Networking Plaza. It is still possible to register for participation at virtual.drupa https://virtual.drupa.com/en/Registration
