Es wurde überall in Online-Blogs zwischen Weihnacht/Neu Jahr gemunkelt, dass Xerox bedauerlicherweise ihre Entscheidung öffentlich gemacht hat, nicht an der IPEX auszustellen. Die Gründe für diese Entscheidung wurden in einer Online-Erklärung von Jeff Jacobson, President von Xerox Global Graphic Communications aufgezeigt. Natürlich ist diese Entscheidung ein schwerer Schlag für die Ipex. Die Ergebnisse der IPEX-eigenen Forschung – unter Leitung von AMR International werden in Form eines Whitepapers in diesem Monat veröffentlicht – zeigen, dass es immer noch ein echtes Interesse von europäischen PSPs gibt, sich mit mehreren digitalen Anbietern in der Ausstellungswelt zu engagieren. Our research shows unequivocally that international visitors still consider landmark industry events such as Ipex to be the most effective means of researching and evaluating new products and suppliers, and to be on a par with supplier sales visits for making purchasing decisions. Respondents also say that finding new suppliers is their second biggest challenge after technical problem solving. Our research affirms that 42% of printer visitors attend Ipex to evaluate the newest ready-to-buy innovations. Exhibitions also score significantly higher than any other platform for peer to peer networking, with 30% of visitors saying they visit exhibitions for this purpose. On this basis, we believe that an event such as Ipex has a significant role to play in the research, information gathering and buying process for printers, making it a vital sales, promotion and customer engagement platform for suppliers targeting these buyers. We are confident that initiatives such as the Global Print Summit and hosted International Delegation Programme will further enhance Ipex’s thought leadership position among the buyer community. Unfortunately, Xerox’s decision has pre-empted the publication of this research, which is fundamental to how Informa is shaping Ipex for 2014 and beyond. Based on this fresh market intelligence, Informa remains committed to delivering a successful, innovative event that meets the evolving business needs of the global print supply chain. We will of course be sharing our research findings with all our stakeholders, and hope that these compelling insights may prompt some reconsideration.
