By Wayne Beckett, Printing Expo Online & Morten B. Reitoft INKISH

Morten B. Reitoft: You launched printing-expo.online just around the start of the global pandemic - was your launch planned, or were you able to adapt to a new future fast?

Wayne Beckett: Believe it or not, we were planning to launch Printing Expo long before we knew anything about COVID and the pending global pandemic. Having worked in the event space with Ipex, we believed that there was a gap in the market for a digital marketing platform that could replicate a trade show that would allow OEMs to market their products globally.

Morten B. Reitoft: How has it been to initiate such a big project - not only big but also entirely new to the industry? I am thinking from you and your colleague's personal perspective - not so much visitors, exhibitors, yet.

Things are easier now as we now have something to show potential exhibitors and, once we have demonstrated the back office, they can understand the many benefits that the platform has to offer.

Wayne Beckett: It's never easy to launch a new product in the market, regardless of if it's a physical or virtual event. The hardest thing is to get people to understand the concept. Yes, Printing Expo looks and feels like an actual event, but of course, it's not. It's a totally different proposition – it's a digital marketing platform designed to help its participants (exhibitors) generate sales leads.

Morten B. Reitoft: Let's talk about the expo. For those who haven't visited printing-expo, the event in many ways tries to resemble a real show, with booths, virtual machines, virtual receptions, virtual stage, etc. What are the advantages/disadvantages of resembling a real-world event?

As the show is open 24/7, 365 days a year, and accessible from anywhere in the world, you can pop in and out as much as you like, so we wanted to create a user experience that would make visitors want to come back. The 3D environments we have created for our exhibitors are unique and cover quite a broad aspect of the industry, and we want to grow this over time.

Morten B. Reitoft: You have on LinkedIn posted some quite appealing visitor numbers - are these according to your expectations, or how are things developing?

Morten B. Reitoft: Not to be critical, but sometimes in your communication, you mix visitors with visits - can you give a little bit of insight into unique visitors, visits, and what people do when visiting the virtual trade show?

We are also finding that we are getting visitors that would not usually get to visit trade shows. This might be that they are in a particular part of the world where travel is difficult or maybe the fact that they are not senior enough. I remember when companies would close for the day to send all their staff to a trade show. This does not happen now, so people that work on the shop floor do not have the opportunity to see new equipment, but with Printing Expo, this is not the case.

Wayne Beckett: Yes, the plan is to keep developing the show with more exhibitors, more feature areas, and booths. Even when live events start again, Printing Expo can be used to compliment exhibitor participation.

When our exhibitors go live, it's a 12 month contract, and obviously, we hope that after the first year, they will renew. We know that we won't keep everyone and if companies do drop out, they can be replaced with new companies, so the show will be changing all the time, which will keep visitors coming back.

Wayne Beckett: In relation to a live event, the initial investment is relatively low. We did not have to put down a deposit for the venue, and our overheads are pretty low as we have a small team that works from home. Marketing is our biggest expense, and we have invested heavily in this over the last 12 months to develop the brand and the concept and drive visitor engagement.

As far as all the events that have been cancelled this year, I feel for them. I have worked in the events sector, and I know how hard this has hit them. My worry is that in the next 12/18 months, they will all want to run, and this won't work for both exhibitors and visitors.

Morten B. Reitoft: Where do you see printing expo online in the next year, two years, five years?

We currently have 2 zones, but we have unlimited space that could go up to 100 zones or more!

New Summer Series on INKISH.NEWS: 
Matt Bennett · Stephan Plenz · Carl Nolan · Miki Rubin · Motoshige Taishi 
Wayne Beckett · Erik Holdo · Aaron Tavakoli · Eva Rosén · Geert Van Damme