Ipex 2006 - the world's largest English-speaking graphic arts show - came to a successful conclusion on 11 April. Over the course of this eight-day event, 52,432 visitors passed through the doors of the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham, England. When repeat visitors are included, attendance figures topped 82,000, not including the 18,234 registered exhibitor personnel.
The 750 square meter stand occupied by Mitsubishi featured one of the main drawing cards of the show and at 20 meters one of the longest as well - a ten-color (five-over-five) Tandem Perfector. The event marked the first time that a DIAMOND 3000TP had been exhibited in the UK, and British printers were quick to show a keen interest in this unique press. Complementing the TP was a Mitsubishi DIAMOND 1000LS five-color press with chamber coater. The DIAMOND 1000, Mitsubishi's most popular press in the UK, was demonstrated as part of the Mitsubishi/JDF workflow. Ten daily live demonstrations of press exhibits ensured a steady stream of visitors to the Mitsubishi stand throughout the show.
 With forty percent of total show attendees arriving from abroad - four percent more than at Ipex 2002, Mitsubishi's international sales teams were on hand in force to meet foreign visitors. The company's sales agents and distributors traveling into Birmingham for the show arrived from China, India, Iran, Turkey, Israel, and Jordan and joined MLP Europe and its network of sales agents throughout mainland Europe.
 MLP UK hosted and coordinated the Mitsubishi booth. Thomas Doliwa, MLP UK Managing Director commenting on the event said, "Ipex 2006 was a fantastic team event. Creating the booth with people from MHI in Mihara and seeing it built by a company from the Netherlands was a great experience. It definitely has contributed to sharpen MLP's profile in Europe and to underline our position among the "big five" press manufacturers. We are proud of having hosted colleagues from many European and Asian countries. Our demonstrators and engineers worked hand-in-glove to explain and demonstrate the equipment at any time and formed an efficient team with the international sales force. We concluded a couple of deals during the show and received a lot of promising projects and leads."
Ipex is a quadrennial event that rotates with the world's three other leading international graphic arts shows - drupa in Germany, Print in the U.S., and Igas in Japan. The next Ipex will take place in the UK in 2010. |
