The Middle East and Africa's professional printing, signs, and visual communications communities are now served by FESPA's new campaign, FESPA Middle East. The first annual expo will take place from January 29 to January 31 at the Dubai expo Centre in the United Arab Emirates.
The show is expected to welcome more than 100 global brands. At the event, FESPA will host the Middle East's first World Wrap Masters competition, a sustainability focused education feature, a conference and technical training program, and a FESPA Club lounge for members of FESPA Direct (MEA Group) to network.
Neil Felton, CEO of FESPA, commented, "Leading professional printing service providers have shown a high demand for content-led FESPA operations in the Middle East, and major suppliers have been demonstrating this need for some time. This market is still growing strongly year over year, with well-known core companies in the area as well as important sectors like real estate and tourism all displaying strong post-COVID-19 recovery. Recent significant events demonstrate the region's capacity to welcome foreign visitors with top-notch facilities. With our recent FLEX Summit and our growing FESPA direct membership in MEA, we are building the FESPA brand in the region, and we believe now is the perfect time for an event to inspire and stimulate the print, signage and visual communications community in the Middle East through FESPA."
At the recent exclusive FESPA Leadership Exchange (FLEX) summit in Dubai, regional printing industry stakeholders responded enthusiastically to the idea and commented, "The area is seeing rapid growth, which presents new potential for the printing industry. "FESPA Middle East will be an important training and learning event for printers in the region, which will be a fantastic opportunity for us all to share and connect," and "FESPA's experience and expertise will complement this."; "We are delighted that this event is coming to the Middle East to help enhance the industry, strengthen education and transform the market"; "The new campaign will bring many new opportunities for us printers."
Like FESPA's regional events in Eurasia (Istanbul), Africa (Johannesburg), Central America (Mexico City) and Brazil (Sao Paulo), FESPA Middle East will provide exhibitors, including key suppliers and distributors, with an important, targeted sales and marketing platform for equipment, software, media and consumables for digital, screen, textile printing and logo making.
The audience will include large format digital printers, textile printers, printing service providers, fleet graphic producers, logo makers and manufacturers, brand owners and creative agencies, interior designers and architects, as well as people from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
FESPA chose the location of its Middle East event to attract the regional printing industry from a wide geographic area, including the Gulf Corporation Council countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain), which have a total population of over 57.2 million and a gross domestic product of over US $4.37 trillion. Dubai is also an ideal destination for visitors from the wider Middle East, North and Central Africa, and South Asia.
Located at the heart of the region, Dubai is the choice for many global brands seeking to establish a direct presence in the Middle East, including several major suppliers of printing equipment and materials. It is also a commercial gateway to Africa for many industries.
The city's well-developed infrastructure and excellent air, sea and land transport and logistics connections make it an attractive city to host FESPA level international events. Jebel Ali Port is the 9th busiest port in the world and Dubai International Airport (DXB) is the number one international airport in the world, serving more than 240 destinations' flight times through more than 100 airlines that connect Dubai to a third of the global population within four hours. Dubai also has an interconnected road network connecting the wider region.
FESPA has appointed an experienced exhibition team in Dubai to sell and promote the new FESPA Middle East campaign, supported by the resources and expertise of a global sales team in the UK, USA, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, South Africa, Thailand and China.
