FULL STORY
The topic of sustainability is becoming increasingly relevant for brand manufacturers and their marketing departments. For this reason, today, companies with a global perspective are already planning ahead in order to avert damage to their image and turnover in the future. Indeed, for this to work, new strategies and coherent concepts are necessary, instead of compartmentalised single steps.
Manuel Mataré, director of drupa at Messe Düsseldorf.
The special exhibition ‘Media Mundo@drupa’ provides an important contribution to the development of these strategies and concepts. Spread over an area of around 240 sq/m, everything in Hall 9 revolves around the whole issue of sustainability in media production. Referring to the Messe Düsseldorf's decision to host the special exhibition,
Manuel Mataré, director of drupa explained, ‘This topic is also growing in significance internationally speaking - and this is not just in the context of boosting efficiency and profitability.’ The industry initiative Media Mundo was called upon to run the special show, which has been a fixed calendar event with the conference (same name) for many years now. This year's Media Mundo conference will be held in the run-up to drupa and will take place on 20 and 21 March in Düsseldorf.
‘In light of the now clearly evident effects of climate change, consumers have rising expectations of industry and trade for responsible and future-oriented economies,’ stated Rüdiger Maaß, managing director of the Fachverband Medienproduktioner e.V. (German Professional Association) and co-founder of the Media Mundo initiative. ‘This is also in the interest of companies themselves, as we see how again and again, investments in sustainable strategies generate both significant cost savings in the middle and long term, and serve to boost the competitive advantage of companies.’
Sustainability is a worthwhile investment for industry
So, why is it that companies do not then pursue sustainable production with greater vigour? According to Maaß, ‘Because, on the one hand, in large companies, people still continue to think in terms of quarterly figures. The responsibility to generate short-term profit for shareholders is considered to be more important than the long-term success of the company. Fortunately, there are counter-examples which indicate that commitment to sustainability not only makes sense from an economic point of view, but that this dedication to sustainability can also draw in new investors.
‘On the other hand, medium-sized companies postpone and shy away from necessary, larger investments as a result of the considerable macroeconomic uncertainty over the past few years. By doing so, these companies miss the opportunity to establish themselves in another market environment and to gain important know-how and expertise. At the Media Mundo conference in March and the special exhibition at drupa, we hope to provide important impetus for rethinking company strategies by showing you how sustainability can be translated into success.’
Special exhibition ‘Media Mundo @drupa’
The Media Mundo initiative is responsible for ensuring the harmonious and professional integration of sustainability into the drupa trade fair concept. The special exhibition on sustainability is split into an exhibition, as well as an information and events area. In total, an area of around 240 m2 is available for this special exhibition in Hall 9.
Here, visitors are brought into contact with innovations, suggestions and sustainability concepts from a whole range of fields in connection with sustainable media production. In addition to associations such as the WWF, FSC, EWPA, AGD, INGEDE and the BVDM presenting themselves at the special exhibition, there will also be providers from areas including paper, energy, media production, packaging, process and workflow management.
We also attach a great deal of importance to sustainability when it comes to stand construction and supporting communication. The entire stand will be constructed using recyclable materials from the Swiss firm Lightboard, whose material is largely made of reclaimed paper. For the trade fair project ‘Media Mundo Print on Demand’, Xerox is supplying a new SolidInk printer ColorQube. Using the mobile print solution, all information material, documentation and white papers can be printed at the special show. In this way, the quantity of printed material is optimally adjusted to suit the trade fair demand and unnecessary paper consumption is considerably lower.
The information area is upgraded by both LED video walls and LG touch screens, and facilitates the communication of multimedia information to the large influx of visitors expected. In particular, touch screens enable topics to be researched individually and explored in greater detail. Furthermore, it is evident that sustainable media production goes far beyond the topic of printing and that, in the medium term, it can only be properly addressed when intelligent cross-media strategies are considered.
In connection with this topic and other such issues, as part of the Event Area programme, lectures, presentations and interviews in both German and English will take place every day between 11am and 2 pm with top-class speakers. Here, you will have the opportunity to take with you valuable stimulus for your own business, gather information regarding current trends and get a glimpse of future developments. This is the ideal opportunity to discuss important, current and controversial topics with industry experts (including Don Carli/president of Nima Hunter, USA; Dr. Paul Albert Deimel/CEO of the German Federal Association of Print and Media).
The individual lectures last no longer than 20 minutes, so there will be plenty of time to answer questions from the audience. Moreover, all lectures will be recorded and simultaneously streamed over the Internet. This means that viewers from all over the world can pose their questions to the respective speakers in an appropriate manner - for example, via the medium of Twitter. Registration for the lectures is not necessary, and the programme can be accessed by clicking on one of the following links: www.drupa.de or www.mediamundo.biz/drupa2012.
The special exhibition on sustainability promises to create awareness about the topic, which is important and necessary if we want to put pressure on companies to change their stance on sustainability in today's modern world.
© Graphic Repro On-line, 8 March 2012.
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