Out of an ‘abundance of caution’ for employees, customers, prospects and partners, Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) has cancelled its planned exhibit at drupa 2021. The event is currently scheduled to take place in Dusseldorf, Germany, next April, having been postponed this year.
The event takes place every four years in Dusseldorf but, like many physical exhibitions in 2020, the event had to be rearranged due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Ongoing travel restrictions and social distancing measures have resulted in the postponement or cancellation of all notable physical trade shows for the remainder of the year.
drupa is arguably the world’s largest dedicated printing equipment exhibition and, by not exhibiting at the event, companies miss the opportunity to showcase their products to a global audience that consists of decision makers from a multitude of industry sectors.
The trade show is an opportunity for exhibitors to generate a string of financially rewarding sales leads, so EFI’s announcement this autumn may come as a surprise to many industry insiders.
“Our company has a long, positive history with drupa, as do I personally, having also run two companies that have been major drupa exhibitors in the past,” says Jeff Jacobson, chairman and CEO, EFI. “The show has always represented some of the best of what can be accomplished at an in-person event for the global print industry.
“But, with the limited amount of knowledge anyone can have right now about what conditions will be for public gatherings early next year, withdrawing from drupa 2021 is an unfortunate albeit prudent decision,” Jacobson adds. “All of us at EFI look forward to future drupa events beyond 2021, and to other industry trade shows once the world has clearly moved past the current pandemic.”
Considering the significant disruption caused by Covid-19 for in-person events, and for EFI’s own sales operations, the OEM has been hosting and will continue to host virtual gatherings and demonstrations for customers and prospects. The company says it is equipped to hold remote demos every day of the week from its facilities across the globe, covering the entire portfolio of EFI display graphics, industrial inkjet, Fiery digital front end, and MIS/ERP workflow solutions.
The textile division of EFI, EFI Reggiani, will also be promoting its solutions at WTiN’s upcoming Innovate Textile & Apparel virtual trade show on 15-30 October. EFI Reggiani’s exhibit will consist of the BOLT single-pass and COLORS multi-pass inkjet textile printers.
EFI says it is committed to participating in physical events when the pandemic subsides, but in the meantime the company has also established activities such as EFI Engage – a virtual event for customers being held in place of the annual EFI Connect users conference. EFI Engage will feature training, education, new technology news and partner developments for EFI customers beginning on 25 January 2021.
