Bigital Thinking Podcast FESPA Special – Part 2

The Bigital Thinking Podcast is a podcast, where our CEO Eric talks to interesting people from the printing industry. At FESPA 2022 we recorded a special episode and interviewed visitors and exhibitors live at the fair.

The podcast is in German but our international guests speak English, so we mark the time stamps in the text and you can listen to the original audio. We also link to each guest’s LinkedIn profile here in case you want to network or learn more.

Because of the length we separated the transcription into three parts. Part 3

Fespa Messe 2022 Berlin Publikum
FESPA 3A Composites

Hendrik Müller – Sales Team Leader Germany / Austria at 3A Composites

It’s nice that you are here. After three years, it’s time we welcomed you here again. Hello Eric. We are here today on the second day of the fair and are simply delighted to be able to welcome many visitors again. We have brought a lot of news with us. Our Five-Dot-Mission, which you can see in the background. The sustainability concept for our products and of course many other news, like our second sustainable board after Dispa. These are our highlights that we are focusing on today and that we would like to show you a bit more.

Eric: How satisfied are you with the fair?

Hendrik: Excellent so far. Today is my first day, but colleagues have already reported from yesterday that the traffic was really good. As you can see, our stand is well attended. Everything is as it should be.

Eric: What is your wish for the week?

Hendrik: The wish for the week? Until Friday, continuous customer visits, good conversations, good contacts. People come to us from all over the world to see the news and of course we want to show them.

Eric: Thank you very much!

Hendrik: All right, Eric, thank you very much!

FESPA Multiplot Interview Joe Rees

Joe Rees – Managing Director and Owner Multiplot

My name is Joe Rees, my DNA is digital textile printing and my passion is sublimation. We have been involved in sustainability and vertical integration in Germany and Europe since 1990. With digital printing, cutting and are specialized in textile manufacturing. We live out our product in different areas, flags, signs and banners, but also in the area of clothing and other surfaces that we want to customize.

Joe: Sustainability is the drive that we see. Because we need much less chemicals than in the traditional area. Fast supply chains, customised options and that’s the drive for us to offer solutions in this area with different partners that are for surface design.

Eric: Joe, from my point of view, you are also one of the most creative minds in large format digital printing or digital printing in general. My question now is: How satisfied are you so far? Finally a trade fair in Germany again. How is it?

Joe: After three years of detox, it is finally possible to breathe freely again and it is great to see that the trade fairs here are well attended. That people are motivated, that they are open to change and innovation. We are simply happy that we can meet people again. A video conference is a great thing and I will travel much less in the future, but face to face is something completely different.

Eric: How satisfied are you with FESPA so far? What news did you perhaps bring back with you and what do you still expect from the last few days?

Joe: First of all, I am very surprised by the number of visitors, I didn’t expect that.  It was a high expectation of the exhibitors, because of course the costs are very high. You have to invest a lot of money for a fair and you don’t really know if it will pay off. The exhibition stands somehow got bigger and bigger. You started small and then you saw „he has so many square metres, we have to add another one“. But at the end of the day, I think it was all worth it. The atmosphere is very, very good. The possibilities for creating new products and in the area of sustainability with textile pigment inks, printing on cotton or the topic of 3D sublimation. The topic of automated production, cutting with lasers, automated sewing is exactly what the market needs at the moment.

Eric: Definitely! What is your wish for the last days?

Joe: The wish is actually that the courage of entrepreneurs who think outside the box is exactly the same as the courage of the person sitting opposite me. 

Eric: Oh, I’m blushing now. Thank you very much Joe for this little interview and have a successful fair!

Joe: Thank you, you too.

Rob Karpenko – Director of Sales Europe at KAVALAN

Hit the play button to listen to Rob Karpenkos thoughts of FESPA 2022.

Let’s connect on LinkedIn.

Torsten Schmalbruch – Key Account Manager InkJet at AGFA

Eric: It’s the first trade fair in Germany without regulations again, everyone is in a good mood. What is your conclusion so far?

Torsten: The response is great, finally no web, no online session, no monitor, no headphones. Live conversations vis a vis. I love that, I need this challenge, the discussions, the real feeling. That’s exactly what we need and that’s what we get here.

Eric: Have you brought any great new things here?

Torsten: Agfa got a bit of something, not just a little kid, but a bigger kid. The Inca Digital and we have a few surprises as well. We have the possibility to varnish, full area or partial area, spot colour. Then we have a one pars print mode in the pipeline. It’s not quite ready for packaging yet, but it looks very good and the response is great. 

Eric: If you could make a wish for the last two days, what would it be?

Torsten: Very simple. The same number of visitors as on the first three days, because that was already awesome and I’m looking forward to it. 

Eric: Thank you very much for the interview.

Marc Hasler – Managing Director and Owner at hasler solutions

We produce automatic cutting machines from small to very large.

Eric: Mostly really big, right?

Marc: Mostly and more and more really, really big, yes. They grow and grow.

Eric: How satisfied are you with FESPA and what news did you bring back?

Marc: Absolutely satisfied! Of course, after such a long time a real and big fair again and for us anyway to introduce the new product. If you ask what we have so new. The completely new technology in the 5-metre range. Which is of course new on the market. For us personally, we also have all the milling options on the market in the smaller range. We had them too, but now we can also show them. Of course, the very large machine is completely new. We have over 5 metres wide here with a length of 6 metres and add another 3 metres. So in the end it’s 11 metres long, but we couldn’t exhibit that here now because the stand is too small for it.

Eric: Greetings to Daniel.

Marc: Yes, exactly.

Eric: What are your wishes and expectations for the next days?

Marc: The wishes are always more orders, of course. We are happy, of course, because so far we have been lucky enough to generate orders at the fair and that is always nice. Some of them are orders that you have worked on in advance or orders that come in afterwards. Since we’ve been exhibiting, we’ve actually always been lucky enough to make contacts at the fair and to be able to close them at the fair. That used to be the case more often, but then it was no longer the case and that’s why it’s a highlight for my young team and me when we go home with orders. Then we are all happy. Then all the effort and the many hours and years of Corona time in which we have built up hidden has been worth it. 

Eric: Many, many thanks dear Marc!

Marc: You’re welcome!

Mantas Azusienis – Managing Director at GM Media

Hit the play button to listen to Mantas Azusienis thoughts of FESPA 2022.

Let’s connect on LinkedIn.