Our friends across the Indian Ocean who publish Sign Africa report a successful Sign Africa Bloemfontein Expo held last week. Africa tends to run smaller shows more frequently in regional areas and will host Sign Expos in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg later in 2022. Like PacPrint/Visual Impact, Roland DG was Platinum sponsor.
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| A positive sign for recovery and a great boost for PacPrint - Sign Africa Bloemfontein |
South Africa was hit particularly hard by Covid, so tho have successfully staged a Sign trade show last week is a very positive sign that it's time to get back to show-business! The small size is no deterrent as there are three more shows this year in the larger cities of Cape Town, Johnannesburg and Durban.
The successful Sign Africa Bloemfontein expo, held on 10 February at Ilanga Estate, attracted 410 visitors from around Christiana, Welkom, Kimberley, Kuruman, Postmasburg, Ladybrand, Klerksdorp and Aliwal North, as well as Maseru (Lesotho), Harare (Zimbabwe) and Nairobi (Kenya).
The event was well received by visitors and exhibitors alike. The event was sponsored by Platinum sponsors Roland DG South Africa and Stixo Signage Supplies.
Visitors were inspired by the latest technologies and trends in wide format digital printing, T-shirt printing, finishing, point of sale displays, signage, banners, flags, vehicle graphics, LED’s, laser engraving and more.
Exhibitors had positive feedback about the event, such as:
"This expo was excellent, all the right people attended in the signage and print industry, and we made great contacts. I will definitely exhibit at the next Bloemfontein expo and look forward to the ones in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg later this year," said Aron Mudau, Curv Signage Systems.
"It has been a busy day and was busier than I anticipated. It’s good to see the industry getting together at expos and moving in the right direction," said Dov Meyers, Chemosol
"We had an extremely busy show and the visitor quality was exceptional. Most of our contacts made are from new companies we have met from this region," said Rakesh Rosen, Midcomp
"It’s been a very busy expo. Clearly people are extremely eager to see products and interact at expos again after Covid. We have made great contacts to follow up with and were very pleasantly surprised about the number of people from Lesotho that attended," said Richard Bell, Intamarket.
It goes to show that you can't beat face-to-face or even mask-to-mask trade events and, with four and a half months to go to PacPrint/Visual Impact, there's plenty of time to plan for the blockbuster it will be!
