FESPA Digital 2014 basked in sunshine in Munich, while a dramatic increase in visitors to the four-day event suggests that the outlook for wide format print is bright too.

The largest ever FESPA Digital show in its eight-year history attracted a record audience of 16766 unique visitors, a 30% increase over FESPA Digital 2011 in Hamburg, the previous best.

49% of all visitors returned to the event for more than one day, bringing the total attendance to 24954 visits. This exceptional figure, up from 40% in Hamburg, underlines printers’ desire to allow sufficient time this year to fully explore the 536 exhibitors with their many product innovations, as well as taking advantage of FESPA Digital’s extensive educational content programme.

FESPA CEO Neil Felton comments, “It’s thrilling to see the market respond to FESPA Digital with this buoyant enthusiasm. This level of audience growth bucks every trend in the B2B event world. It strongly reinforces our conviction that a content-rich, community-led event, geared towards the needs of exhibitors and visitors rather than those of shareholders, offers all participants the most positive experience, providing a great platform for business with a unique ‘feel-good factor’.”

The four exhibition halls and themed content ‘hubs’ buzzed with visitors responding to FESPA’s call to ‘Dive Deeper Into Digital’. Exhibitors all around the show reported exceptional footfall, dynamic conversations with investment-ready decision makers, qualified leads and confirmed sales. Many participating companies pronounced this their best-ever FESPA, with commercial outcomes for many expected to exceed those from the flagship ‘screen + digital + textile’ FESPA event in Berlin in 2007, before the global economic crisis impacted the sector.