FESPA Middle East, which connects senior decision-makers and trade professionals with leading OEM suppliers and distributors from the print and signage industry, will return to the Dubai Exhibition Centre on 20-22 January 2025 after a hugely successful inaugural event earlier this year. In an exclusive conversation with PrintWeek MENA, FESPA CEO Neil Felton said: “The highlights of the 2025 edition will be an even greater array of exhibitors, with a particular focus from international brands coming in. I think this is what the region really needs: to see the latest equipment from the most exciting brands in the world. That’s what FESPA is going to bring. So that’s number one. Number two, I would say it’s very much about content and education. So we are going to be even more educational content. We are going to be looking at a variety of things, from AI, sustainability, digital signage, and a whole range of things with regard to education, to show the audience where the next opportunities are. We have also got some focus with regard to the wrap industry. That went incredibly well last year. We are going to build on that again. So I’d say that would be the third thing. And the fourth thing would be, actually, the attendance from around the region, not just Dubai, but trying to get printers to work with one another and to meet at FESPA and talk about the trends that are happening. Because a trade show in isolation is interesting, but it’s so much more powerful when we have printers speaking to one another about what they see in the market, what they see the trends are, and they see FESPA as a place anywhere in the world, any festival in the world you go to, people are much more open to sharing their ideas, because it has such an international, powerful flavour, but with a lot of local support behind it. So, I would say those four factors are the main reasons why FESPA will be even better and bigger next year.”
“But we know there's going to be a lot of big launches, particularly in the wide format space. We think particularly in textile, there's going to be a lot of areas of change and software. We believe software is going to play a key role moving forward for efficiencies, quality, colour management, and those sorts of things. So, actually, we think this year there will be a lot of new equipment coming out, and I think we are starting to see development increasing again. So, if you look at three to four years ago about COVID, you know it was a little bit slower. Now, you are starting to see the large manufacturers coming back with lots of changes, moving and moving, just trying to increase the quality, speed, and automation of their machinery. So I think we will see many launches as we get closer.”
“We are the only exhibition organizer that has an ISO certificate, and we believe that we as a federation, we need to walk the walk and talk the talk. And we can't just say talk about sustainability without us being sustainable ourselves. From that, we can take printers through the journey, which is very challenging, and learn how you can become more sustainable. You'll see it's something which is for the industry, by the industry, and you'll feel that when you walk in this show.
“FESPA has been around for 60 years, and the only reason that we've got the image that we've got is because each year we're trying to improve on what we've done, and sometimes we do well, but most of the times, we always try and push it just that a little bit more. And in the second show, we can take it to a brand-new level. We are investing in new people to add even more power from a marketing perspective. So, we have a much bigger marketing team behind it. We have a much more international focus, and I will be spending time with the team going to the GCC region to try and make sure we get even more audience, whilst not forgetting the most important audience, of course, will be the local audience in the UAE.
“What amazed me in 2024 was that we had an international feeling about it, so we had many people from outside. We will push even more for international brands but also bring a lot from the UAE and even more to understand to bring the whole market in,” he adds.
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