At Viscom 2013 visitors from printing and advertising technology operations, creative agencies, marketing departments, the retail sector, digital signage providers or object designers will find a broad range of products and services as well as an extensive supporting programme.
Exhibitors
Two months before the start of the fair, close to 300 exhibitors have already booked their stands. Among those present will be the leading digital printing companies. However, the other core themes of the trade fair such as advertising technology and light advertising, working materials and services, digital signage, display/PoS and out-of-home media are also strongly represented. Moreover, trade fair organiser Reed Exhibitions again expects some 20 young companies who will receive funding from the German Ministry of Economics for their trade fair premieres.
Approximately one third of the exhibitors come from abroad. Countries with a particularly strong presence this year are China with 25 registrations to date, Poland with 15 companies, the Netherlands with 14, France with eight and Korea with seven companies. Further countries are Italy, Austria, Belgium or Turkey. This will also be reflected on the visitor side. At the previous viscom in Düsseldorf two years ago, the share of international visitors was more than 20 percent.
New technologies
At a large number of special areas, lectures and discussion rounds visitors can find out how they can benefit from the technical possibilities in visual communication. Innovations and examples of best practices will be presented throughout the entire duration of the fair. There will be demonstrations of material innovations and print wonders, insights into shop and object design, the latest digital signage applications or LED technology.
The centrepiece is the viscom World of Inspiration, the marketplace for ideas, best practices and networking. Here the Retail World demonstrates Point of Sale solutions in a real setting. Exhibitors showcase novelties and trends for the electronics/consumer goods, fashion/shoes/accessories, confectionery/café as well as beauty/fragrance segments.
At the Value Added Printing and Brand Packaging area, packaging trends for materials, processing and packaging technologies will be on display.
Another new feature at the viscom World of Inspiration is the Print Star area. Here best practices from printing technology will be shown. In cooperation with the “Deutscher Drucker” trade magazine, high-quality, innovative and unusual print products will be displayed.
There will also be the premiere of the Future Corner and the topic of high-tech in printing with it. Pioneering special print themes such as “printed electronics” are to be presented and discussed here. Materials of all types are the subject of the Materials exhibition: Design meets Materials which will again present all kinds of printed and finished materials. With it comes a programme of daily lectures and discussion rounds.
Once again, many exhibitors will contribute – some of them in the form of the Lunch & Learns held daily at the viscom World of Inspiration area. Topics range from print products on the Internet and UV printing on various materials to interactive digital signage and gesture controlled devices at the Point of Sale. Other major events on the lecture programme are the two days dedicated to the topics of 360-degree communication and digital signage. Moreover, there will be a special workshop area presenting practical issues relevant for advertising technicians.
Award presentation ceremonies
This year will see an evening event created especially to honour the winning projects of the Digital Signage Best Practice Award. This award presentation ceremony will be held on the first day of the trade fair and start at 6.30 p.m. Moreover, all nominated projects will be on display during the trade fair at the viscom World of Inspiration.
The presentation of the Superstar award will also be held on the evening of the first trade fair day. The Superstar is awarded to complex and sophisticated display and PoS solutions. The focus is on state-of-the-art product packaging reflecting current trends, technologies and processing possibilities in the market. The Platinum Superstar will also be awarded to the winners of the gold award in Germany
viscom night will take place on Friday night. Here all the attention is on the winners of the exhibitors’ award – the viscom Best of 2013 Award. It is presented to the most innovative products entered by the exhibitors in the categories of Signmaking, large Format Printing/LFP, Light Advertising, Textile Finishing and Software. The motto of viscom night will be “shabby chic” with Currywurst and music, it will be held at the viscom World of Inspiration area.
For the first time, the presentation ceremony for the “designmaker” award will become part of the trade fair this year. This award goes to designs that can be realised on quite diverse materials and advertising carriers. The competition therefore acts as a bridge between the creative industries and advertising technology. The three best design ideas will be presented on the first day of the trade fair from 1 p.m. at the designmaker area in Hall 8b/D80.
