Print businesses including Mimaki, HP and software developer CHILI publish are stepping up efforts to connect with customers online through virtual trade shows, meetings and webinars after the postponements of global print expos drupa and FESPA due to the coronavirus.
 |
| (image courtesy vfairs.com) |
Wide format technology manufacturer Mimaki has replaced its planned FESPA 2020 stand in Madrid with a Virtual Print Festival.
“Mimaki Europe will host an interactive online event - The Mimaki Virtual Print Festival - that’s designed to replicate its original FESPA 2020 line-up and provide latest product information and demonstrations, educational webinars and live Q&As,” says a company press release.
“Mimaki is fully supportive of FESPA’s considered decision to postpone its event and we look forward to participating in the rescheduled event once new dates are confirmed,” says Danna Drion, senior marketing manager EMEA, Mimaki Europe. “While we cannot recreate the full experience of attending a FESPA event, we want to ensure that our customers and prospects still have access to as much of the latest product information and educational resources that we intended to share at FESPA 2020 as possible.
“The Virtual Print Festival allows us to offer the industry exactly that, enabling a host of different virtual interactions designed to inspire, engage and excite our customers and prospects as they see the range of applications and business opportunities enabled by Mimaki’s latest solutions.”
The event will comprise a series of group webinars and individual virtual meetings starting the 24th March 2020, the same date that FESPA 2020 was originally scheduled to open its doors, with Mimaki revealing new features and content each week until the end of April.
The company will offer customers, partners and prospects the opportunity to participate in product demonstrations, virtual FESPA 2020 stand tours, individual meetings to discuss specific business requirements and technology questions and live, knowledge-sharing sessions with FESPA executives.
“Everything from signage, graphics, textiles, direct-to-shape, 3D print and more will be discussed, with Mimaki encouraging an open dialogue with industry peers from all market sectors,” the company says.
Short video demonstrations showcasing Mimaki’s latest technologies will be scheduled throughout the event. Headlining the video series will be the Tx300P-1800 MkII (pictured above), which offers both direct-to-textile and transfer printing.
To register and participate, visit www.mimakieurope.com/virtual-print-festival
 |
| CHILI publisher can adjust a store front window graphic to fit multiple sizes |
Print software specialist CHILI publish, which pulled out of drupa last week, a few days before it was officially postponed, is launching a series of webinars and individual meetings.
“drupa is the highlight for anyone in print and packaging,” says Kevin Goeminne, CEO of CHILI publish. “Our team worked hard to deliver new features within the Smart Templates in CHILI publisher, as requested by B2B printers, brand owners and agencies. However, we have a responsibility towards our team, partners, customers and the whole community worldwide to ensure that business continuity and full operability prevail at all times.”
Customer and prospects meetings to showcase new features in CHILI publisher - a software solution that automates the production of graphics - are being rebooked to individual meetings, dedicated webinars and online (1-1 and/or group) meetings. “The company is currently investigating alternatives to reach and serve the drupa visitor audience, with new features to be announced as scheduled towards the end of April.”
HP has donated $1M to support coronavirus recovery efforts and donated PCs and printers to help hospitals in affected areas get up and running.
CEO and president Enrique Lores told customers the company is cancelling HP events and meetings in favour of virtual options and is regularly updating its Virtual Agent service.
“As a business community, we are all focused on managing the unprecedented Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation with both urgency and a deep sense of care,’ Lores says.
“We have taken a number of proactive actions across our business to protect our employees, customers and partners – from increased cleaning of our facilities and stepping up screening practices at all HP sites to limiting travel, implementing work from home policies for employees, and cancelling HP events and meetings in favour of virtual options. We are also updating our 24/7 Virtual Agent regularly with the latest information.”
The company has also released the HP Response to COVID-19 Guide for Customers and Partners, with details of “business continuity plans, how-to guides and other useful information pertaining to the most common requests we are receiving, including cleaning your PC or Printer, best practices when working from home, and tips for hosting virtual meetings.”
“This situation is going to be with us for some time and we will continue to monitor it closely and act accordingly,” says Lores. The entire HP leadership team and I are ready to support you in the coming weeks and months. Do not hesitate to reach out to us or our teams at any time. Please stay safe.”
Press giant Heidelberg says it supports the decision to postpone drupa and is also working on other ways to connect with customers.
“Regardless of the postponement of the fair, Heidelberg continues to drive innovations forward and will launch and make them available to the customers as planned. In addition, Heidelberg is working on an alternative for its customers who will receive further information shortly.”
UK software developer Infigo Software is offering a webinar featuring demonstrations it planned to show at HP users’ conference Dscoop Edge 2020 Orlando, which has also been postponed.
“We would like to invite members of the Dscoop family to join us for an in-depth webinar, featuring demonstrations of latest upgrades to our Catfish Web-To-Print software that we had planned to show in Orlando.
The webinar will look at: how Catfish integrates with HP’s Siteflow by automating workflow; Integration with printIQ; and a range of other topics. Register here.
