FESPA Americas is Latest American Blockbuster

The first ever FESPA Americas show, held alongside Graphics of the Americas and the ISS show from February 24-26th in Orlando, FL, has been hailed a success with overall visitor numbers 16 percent higher than the previous Graphics of the Americas exhibition in 2010. Representing 90 different countries, 75 percent of visitors to the show were senior decision-makers within their companies.

FESPA Americas aimed to educate and inspire visitors through a range of innovative exhibits and show features. This approach drew positive feedback from exhibitors, including INX Digital International who commented, "FESPA Americas has brought new life to the GOA show and we have seen a great number of visitors from both North America and Latin America, which is really unique for an event in the US."

Supported by David Murphy, Director of Marketing Americas, HP, who praised the event. "We're really pleased with what we have seen here at FESPA Americas—it is a really busy and successful show. You can feel a new level of energy and dynamic exchange of ideas among attendees."

FESPA Americas provided visitors with the chance to see some of the latest and most pioneering technologies introduced to the market, including Sun Innovations' NEO UV-LED-Evolution, a printer which promises new opportunities for producing full color designs on diverse surfaces including water. Remarking on the company's experience, Lina Safronova, International Sales Manager at the Sun Innovations Company said, "We gained a lot of traffic to our booth with people wanting to see the capabilities of our printer and were running samples constantly to demonstrate photo-printing on any substrate, including water—that was a real show stopper! We sold both our machines at the show and have more quality leads to follow-up."

FESPA Americas offered a packed visitor program, designed to appeal to a broad spectrum of the industry- screen, fabric and digital printers. Attractions included the Wide Format Print Shop Live!, a world-first from FESPA bringing together global brands EFI, HP, Roland, Caldera and EskoArtwork to run three functioning, end-to-end print production lines on the show-floor.

Platinum sponsor EFI's Frank Tueckmantel, Vice President of Corporate Marketing commented, "FESPA is an important partner for EFI on a global basis; they are interested in continually bringing new solutions to facilitate customer engagement in all their events and the Wide Format Print Shop Live! is a perfect example of that."

The show also introduced the Screen Master's Workshop, a unique boot-camp for aspiring screen printers. Screen masters Michel Caza, Scott Fresener, Charlie Taublieb, Bhargav Mistry and Ad Versteeg offered workshop participants a hands-on learning experience of the complete screen printing process.

"We were privileged to share our experience with the students at FESPA Americas, and between the five of us there is a lot of it, nearly 200 years in fact," said Scott Fresener, Screen Master and SGIA Parmele Award winner. "This was a brand new feature format for FESPA shows and I would hope it's one which will return because the feedback from participants has been tremendous. Combining active learning with interactive discussion is a winning FESPA formula."

Tiffany Rader, Chief Operating Officer, Allusive Butterfly commented on the Screen Masters Workshop: "This event has been the highlight of my career, gaining hands-on tips and working with world renowned screen print masters like these has been an invaluable experience that I can transfer to my day-to-day business."