中文The world’s leading printing trade fair is preparing for a noticeably different edition in 2028. Organisers of drupa have confirmed that the event will combine its traditional on-site exhibition at Messe Düsseldorf with a year-round digital platform, a hybrid structure intended to extend the value of the show well beyond the eleven days the halls are open. Early exhibitor bookings are running ahead of the comparable point in the previous cycle, a signal that suppliers remain committed to physical showcasing even as they demand more flexible formats.
The hybrid model reflects a broader reassessment of how industrial trade fairs should work after years in which travel budgets, scheduling friction and the rise of digital selling forced organisers to rethink the calendar. drupa’s organisers argue that a physical event remains indispensable for demonstrating machinery that cannot be experienced through a screen, but that the conversation, lead generation and education surrounding it should not be confined to a single fortnight. The digital layer is designed to keep that activity alive across the full inter-drupa period.
Early demand has surprised even the organisers. Bookings for hall space are tracking ahead of the same stage before the last in-person edition, suggesting that the pent-up appetite to meet face to face has not dimmed. Suppliers of presses, finishing lines, workflow software and materials appear eager to reserve prominent positions, aware that a strong drupa presence still functions as a powerful commercial statement in the print sector’s crowded marketplace.
The digital platform accompanying the live event will carry exhibitor profiles, product information, webinar content and matchmaking tools intended to help visitors plan their time on site and continue discussions afterwards. For smaller suppliers that cannot maintain a large stand for the full duration, the online component offers a persistent presence that levels the visibility gap with larger competitors. Organisers describe it as a way to make the show more efficient rather than to replace the hall experience.
For attendees, the hybrid format changes how a drupa visit is planned. Instead of arriving cold, buyers can shortlist technologies, book demonstrations in advance and use the digital layer to filter an overwhelming exhibitor list down to relevant prospects. That pre-qualification is valuable given the sheer scale of the event, where the distance between halls and the density of offerings have historically made thorough coverage difficult within the available days.
The strategic logic is also about geography. drupa’s audience is global, and a meaningful share of visitors from Asia, the Americas and Africa weigh the cost and disruption of international travel against the benefit of attending. A digital layer that delivers year-round content reduces the pressure to extract every conversation from a single trip, while preserving the live event as the moment when the industry physically reconvenes. Organisers hope this widens participation rather than cannibalising attendance.
Messe Düsseldorf’s investment in the digital infrastructure signals a recognition that the trade-fair business model is evolving. Revenue once tied almost entirely to stand space and badges is diversifying into data, content and connectivity services that persist after the halls close. Whether printers will pay for ongoing access remains the open question, but the direction of travel is clear across the exhibition industry as a whole.
There are risks in the hybrid approach. A digital platform that merely replicates a catalogue adds little, and attendees will judge it on whether it surfaces genuine insight and useful contacts rather than marketing noise. Organisers will need to curate content aggressively and maintain activity between cycles, or the online layer will atrophy into a static archive that nobody visits. The success of drupa 2028 will depend as much on the quiet months of digital engagement as on the spectacle of the live show.
For the print industry, the hybrid drupa is a useful bellwether. If the model works, it could become the template for how capital-intensive, demonstration-driven sectors run their flagship events: a concentrated physical gathering anchored by a continuous digital relationship. Suppliers that adapt their marketing to that rhythm, treating the show as one peak in an ongoing conversation rather than a once-every-few-years sprint, are likely to extract more value from their participation.
As planning accelerates toward 2028, the early booking strength offers a reassuring data point for an industry that has weathered structural contraction in many segments. The willingness of exhibitors to commit space ahead of forecast suggests confidence that customers still want to see, touch and compare machinery in person, even as the frames around those encounters grow more flexible and more connected than they were in the past.
Exhibitors themselves are adapting how they approach the show. Rather than reserving a stand and hoping traffic appears, many are now planning content and demonstrations around the digital layer, using it to book meetings and qualify leads before the halls open. That shift rewards suppliers who invest in clarity and education over spectacle, and it raises the bar for the physical presence to deliver something a screen cannot: the tactile proof of a machine running at speed.
Source: drupa, published 2026.
