It doesn’t appear as if next month’s Drupa trade show will affect attendance at Nexpo/SuperConference.

More than 60 percent of managers attending the quadrennial printing industry trade show said Drupa wouldn’t change their commitment to attend Nexpo/SuperConference, according to a Newspapers & Technology survey. Nexpo is scheduled one month after the close of Drupa.

Just over 30 percent of the newspapers responding to the N&T survey said they plan to attend Drupa, set for May 6-19 in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Computer-to-plate, postpress and press systems are expected to take center stage among the technologies attendees plan to evaluate, the poll said.

High cost of travel

The high cost of travel and the fact that Drupa is not a newspaper-centric show deterred some prospective attendees. More than half said budgets wouldn’t allow for an international trip while 15 percent said they had no intention to purchase products.

Another 15 percent said the trip would be too time-consuming.

One respondent said it was in his newspaper’s best interests to confine travel only to American shows in order to convince European vendors to maintain strong U.S. operations.

As for this year’s Nexpo/SuperConference in Washington, D.C., 86 percent of those responding to our survey said they plan to attend.

But interest in a multiyear format for the NAA show appears to be building. Nearly 40 percent of survey respondents said they’d be more inclined to attend Nexpo if it were held every other year, while 44 percent preferred the current annual schedule.

Nexpo/SuperConference exhibitors, meantime, can expect press and postpress technologies to capture the most interest among attendees, the survey showed.

(Editor’s note: Newspapers & Technology will publish its annual Nexpo/SuperConference buying intentions survey next month.)