What a pleasant surprise to see the crowds on the first two days of the show (we did not stay for the 3rd day), especially in view of our survey results that echoed opinions that people wanted a show with at least one weekend day.
VISA tried hard to include a weekend but were unsuccessful with this venue and date combination. They tried to compensate by having extended hours and even throwing in free drinks during the evening - it obviously worked.
Attendance numbers were very good with VISA GM Peter Harper reporting that by 2pm on the opening day, last year’s attendance figure for that same opening day had been exceeded.
The venue made a big difference this year with halls 5 and 6 being utilised instead of The Dome.
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| The wrap competition in full swing | The Jag you could take for a weekend |
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| This giant Behometh was being wrapped by Art & Soul | Is it a truck or a ute? It was huge |
We know that many big orders were taken at the show and from the exhibitors and delegates that we spoke to, it was a successful show for all. VISA will announce the final attendance figures in due course.
VISA shows are utilised effectively for several major exhibitors who dominate with the big stands, namely Roland DG, Mimaki, Graphic Art Mart, AVS, Canon and HP to name the big ones.
HP rotate their exhibit partners at these shows, this year it was Neopost whilst earlier this year in Brisbane, Celmac had the honour.
The rumour mill was rife with a story about Neopost and Anitech but more about that when things are either confirmed or denied.
New products abounded at the show and on the opening day we worked late into the night to make sure our Wednesday newsletter included the Mimaki announcement about new products, including the world’s first showing of the CJV 300 range of printer/cutters. Brad Creighton, national sales and marketing manager for Mimaki Australia did an excellent presentation of the 8 new machines.
Roland DG had the MonoFab 3D printers on show and needless to say the whole subject of 3D and these machines attracted a lot of interest.
Canon/Océ also had a first with the MemJet powered ColorWave 900 producing 9 metre length prints in less than 30 seconds all in hi res print. The big Arizona 660 GT was also producing flat bed and roll to roll print at a massive rate. The President and CEO of Océ Display Graphic Systems, Attilio Mainoli who is based at the Arizona factory in Vancouver took the trouble to attend the show and was a favourite for visitors to the Canon/Océ stand.
AVS had some firsts with the Flora range of printers and also the AnaJet DTG machines.
Neopost/HP gave the first appearance in Australia of the HP Latex 3000 – the biggest Latex machine in the range. The machine was adorned with 2 stickers showing that at least 2 machines had been sold – as at the 2nd day. We understand that several other orders were taken but the buyers did not want their names publicised.
An interesting exhibitor proved to be SMIB (Sign Manufacturers Insurance Brokers). Shane Brady explained that the company specialised in helping sign companies with their insurance. They have been dealing with the Sign A Rama group for many years and due to their knowledge of the sign industry and also of the insurance industry, they are ideally placed to advise on insurance and perhaps more importantly help their clients with any claims that may eventuate.
Jetmark, a newish company made its first appearance at the VI show and presented a Taiwanese machine that they claim cuts of cost of print due to the relatively lost cost of the machine but also the low cost JetBest inks which they claim is a premium ink with over 300 users in Australia.
Conect and Positive Camtec showed off the new 50 micron MetaWrap MD-X film being used to wrap a small Fiat. Recent news was that Conect Enterprises had been appointed the Metamark Master Distributor for our region and Positive Camtec had been selected to represent the product in the New South Wales and ACT states.
Positive Camtec in their own right also had a first with the first Australian showing of the SwissQPrint Nyala 2, a machine that is capable of producing 3D print using just the ink as the medium for the 3D effect.
Celmac had a very impressive cutting table on show from German company Aristo. Michael Hock from the German company was kept busy doing demonstrations and Wayne McIntyre, CEO of Celmac reported at least 5 sales from the show.
CPH Group, another first time exhibitor from Geelong had the Japanese Klikink system on show and as we understand it from CEO Tristan Hornsey, the product was receiving plenty of interest for this new system of bulk ink delivery via a normal cartridge.
Tristan also mentioned that CPH had introduced the industry’s first “Reward” program which enables customers to gather points with each purchase and then exchange those points for consumer gifts such as barbeque, etc.
Nicola Bisset CEO of British company Optimus MIS must surely win first prize when it comes to clocking up most Frequent Flyer points since she has offices in most western countries and exhibits at just about all the major shows around the world. She assured us that Optimus is not a static MIS product, the software is constantly upgraded to accommodate new features and bug fixes and has a very fast growing following in our region and is ideally suited to the wide format and sign industry. She had a busy stand at the VI show.
Our apologies those exhibitors we have not mentioned here. Obviously our coverage of the show related only to the wide format sector.
See videos below. More will be added as we await approvals from the respective exhibitors.
Mimaki Australia
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SMIB
{youtube}49u8KJFzZ58|600|500{/youtube}
Celmac
{youtube}LgXIGtslVdc|600|500{/youtube}
Positive Camtec
{youtube}Dt31gfwuJjc|600|500{/youtube}
DES
{youtube}KFZyom9bszA|600|500{/youtube}
Spicers
{youtube}dvdL5GHCTms|600|500{/youtube}
Roland DG
{youtube}28UocYXGYJo|600|500{/youtube}
Impression Technology/Pigment.inc
{youtube}ZgS0izLkMO8|600|500{/youtube}
Anitech
{youtube}G4Z-JcN7qKs|600|500{/youtube}
Neopost
{youtube}HEar_iMg5sI|600|500{/youtube}
JetMark
{youtube}3uW7GqQZcfg|600|500{/youtube}
CPH Group
{youtube}rKGVVbJaK_4|600|500{/youtube}
Conect Enterprises/Positive Camtec/Metamark
{youtube}GLN7DNf_vlI|600|500{/youtube}
