中文Offset press manufacturing giant Heidelberg will host its second Shift conference next month, with a focus on the future of print. The two-day event will take a close look at the digital transformation of the printing industry, automated production processes, robotics, end-to-end digital printing innovations featuring the Jetfire 50 and Jetfire 75, and the continued integration of artificial intelligence into modern print shops.
The Jetfire presses are the B3 and B2 water-based inkjet four-colour printers, produced in partnership with Canon, that print at more than 9,000 sheets an hour. They run on Heidelberg’s Prinect workflow and integrate with the AI-driven Prinect Touch Free, signalling how deeply automation now sits inside the company’s product strategy.
The first day of the event will focus on key industry trends and challenges. International speakers from printing and technology companies, as well as consulting firms, will provide practical insights into successful process digitisation projects. Planned presentations include topics such as data-driven production, workflow automation, hybrid printing environments, robotics, and the use of artificial intelligence in business and production processes.
In addition, several Heidelberg customers will present their experiences with implementing digital transformation projects, including Meinders & Elstermann. The company is one of the pilot users of Prinect Touch Free in conjunction with the Jetfire 50 industrial digital printing system, and will report on its experience implementing the new workflow and on the efficiency gains already achieved. Hearing directly from early adopters is intended to give attendees a candid view of what transformation delivers in practice, not just in theory.
On the second day, participants will experience the digitisation of print production live at the “Home of Print,” the Heidelberg Print Media Center at the Wiesloch-Walldorf site. The focus will be on industrial digital printing applications using the Jetfire 50 with inline finishing and the Jetfire 75, both controlled by Prinect Touch Free, as well as intelligent postpress processing, data analytics and automation concepts for fully integrated hybrid production combining digital and offset printing.
The programme will be complemented by live demonstrations, breakout sessions and presentations by partner companies. The combination of keynote perspective, customer testimony and hands-on demonstration is designed to show how the pieces of a digital print operation fit together, from order entry through finishing.
Dr David Schmedding, CSO at Heidelberg, frames the stakes plainly: “Without digitalisation, automation, and artificial intelligence, sustainable economic success in the printing industry will be virtually impossible in the future. Companies that consistently invest in these technologies today will secure decisive competitive advantages. Shift 2026 uses concrete, real-world examples to illustrate how this transformation can be successfully implemented.”
He adds that visitors will gain valuable insights, new perspectives and the opportunity to exchange ideas with leading industry experts. There is no charge to attend the conference, a deliberate choice to widen participation among printers weighing their own modernisation paths.
Heidelberg’s emphasis on hybrid production, linking digital Jetfire lines with established offset through a single intelligent workflow, reflects the reality most printers actually live in. Rather than choosing one technology, the advantage lies in orchestrating both, using each where it is strongest. Prinect Touch Free, with its AI-driven automation, is the company’s bet that this orchestration should feel less like integration engineering and more like a managed service.
By opening the conference free of charge and staging live demonstrations at its Wiesloch-Walldorf Print Media Center, Heidelberg is lowering the barrier for printers weighing their own modernisation. The message is that transformation is manageable and that peers have already walked the path, with efficiency gains in setup, waste and turnaround that are real rather than theoretical. In a consolidating, automating industry, such confidence-building has itself become a competitive tool.
For the broader market, Shift 2026 is a signal that the industry’s centre of gravity is moving from the press as a standalone machine toward the workflow as the product. Conferences like this one exist to build confidence among owners and operators that the transition is manageable, that peers have already walked the path, and that the efficiency gains, shorter setup, less waste, faster turnaround, are real. Heidelberg’s willingness to host, demonstrate and disclose customer results positions it not merely as an equipment supplier but as a partner in operational transformation.
The conference also reflects a subtle shift in how press makers court customers. Rather than leading with machine specifications, Heidelberg is leading with outcomes: less waste, faster setup, higher uptime. That customer-centric framing acknowledges that many owners are less interested in maximum throughput than in predictable, profitable operation. Shift 2026 is engineered to make that case through peers rather than sales pitches, letting results speak where brochures cannot.
Registration and agenda details are available through Heidelberg’s channels, and the free admission is expected to draw a broad mix of owners, production managers and finishers weighing their next capital decision. For an industry cautious about large commitments, a no-cost, evidence-led event lowers the barrier to simply showing up and learning, which is often the first step toward the harder work of actual change.
Source: Print21 (by Wayne Robinson), published 4 September 2026.
