For those of us in the Graphic Communications Group at Kodak, the quadrennial trade show known as drupa might best be described as our Olympics. If you have not seen it in person I do not know that any words can truly do justice to the sheer size of the event. Close to half a million people from over one hundred countries attend the show in Düsseldorf, Germany to see the latest in printing technology. From giant offset printing presses to prepress and production software packages to Kodak's latest digital inkjet printing technologies, if it's printing related it's probably on display at drupa.

The Kodak booth at drupa

Many other people from Kodak have been writing about drupa over at our new blog, GrowYourBiz, so I encourage you go there and read some of their great stories yourself. What I am hoping to do here is give everyone who may have never heard about drupa or visited GrowYourBiz a little insight into life at a trade show - specifically, my brief time at drupa.

Looking out over the Kodak booth during setup

Outside of Hall 5 - Kodak was inside of this building

So why exactly was I shipped off to Germany? Here at Kodak, I work in R&D on our new Stream Inkjet Technology and was helping with the setup of the Stream Concept Press. It is very exciting to be demonstrating this new technology that produces offset-class quality images to the world, which we did for the first time publicly at drupa. Thanks to being there before the show started I also was able to see the logistics behind such a massive trade show. Two weeks before the show began it was an empty building and when I got there with a week to go the entire booth was still completely under construction. Even the night before the show opened there was dust and boxes and packages all over the place. Yet we walked in the next morning and it looked like the cleanest showroom in the world - and it probably was. Amazing is an understatement to describe the amount of work, thought, planning and execution that goes into making drupa a success for Kodak and any other company out there.

Stream Concept Press during setup

Getting the Stream Concept Press ready for its world debut

Any regular readers of my blogs know how much I love to travel and this was my first trip to Germany. Simply put, I loved my time there. Great country, great people. If you haven't been, go!

Signs for drupa were everywhere!

I just couldn't get over the stack of Smart cars

While much hard work goes into the show, we did have time to get out and see some of the city most nights. One of the best places in Düsseldorf is the Altstadt, or the old town. Aside from a plethora of restaurants, bars, and nightlife it is historic in its own right with many of the oldest buildings in the city. It runs right to the edge of the Rhine, which curves through the city and is a beautiful place to take a stroll or river cruise on a warm summer night. Overall, the entire city had a fun vibe to it and I enjoyed many of the places Düsseldorf has to offer. And yes, the beer was quite delicious.

Düsseldorf and the Rhine

Statue of Prince Jan Wellem in the Altstadt

After my work was done in Düsseldorf I actually took a few days to go on vacation down in Munich, Bavaria, and Austria. It was absolutely beautiful in Southern Germany and the Alps and I cannot wait to get back over there as soon as possible. I only returned home to the U.S. about five days before I am sending this blog in to be posted and, to be completely honest, have barely even begun to sort thru my hundreds of photos. Accordingly, look for a lot more stories and photos about the vacation portion of my trip in my next blog or two. Until then, thanks for reading and safe travels!

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