Konica Minolta withdraws from drupa 2021 while engaging with customers in new and creative ways
Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe has today announced its decision to withdraw from its participation at drupa 2021 to follow the path of new, tailored formats of engaging with its customer base.
The market leader in production printing for more than a decade (InfoSource) has today announced its withdrawal from drupa 2021. The company has already taken the path of new, tailored and digital or hybrid formats of engagement with its target groups and will pursue these new rules of engagement further.“
We very much still believe in the power of personal relationships and of course the power of seeing our portfolio and touching the print products from our presses and are evaluating the potential combinations of virtual and real-life concepts. However, exhibiting at drupa or any other trade fair at the moment makes no sense to us during the current world uncertainty. Things are too unpredictable. Our highest priority is always to make sure that our colleagues, customers and all their families stay safe and healthy. And while the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt on a global basis, we have taken a decision to withdraw our physical presence from drupa, as well as other shows for the foreseeable future.
Olaf Lorenz, General Manager International Marketing Division, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH
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With drupa postponed in June, the company’s rules had to adapt and it had to rethink what’s possible for its customers and prospects. For example, Konica Minolta has launched a virtual showroom that holds many features for an interactive exploration of their manifold product offers in printing. In the Konica Minolta Inkjet Center of Competence in Bratislava the company offers virtual live demonstrations where people can experience products with a two-way camera set-up and interact with the Konica Minolta experts.
Additionally, Konica Minolta is reviewing opportunities for bespoke local events that leverage the best of two worlds: having customers being able to come and see the new solutions and possibilities that Konica Minolta has in stock for them while being safely embedded in their own country without travel restrictions and having the full power of a world leader in printing solutions in the background – with global innovation and technology power and expertise right at their fingertips.
Olaf Lorenz concluded: “Our utmost goal has been and always will be to help shape ideas for our customers in a partnership approach – no matter the ‘communication channel’, whether face to face or virtually. We are fully convinced that print will endure as a communications medium even with the perceived threats from digital, mobile and virtual channels, which many people thought had signalled the death-knell for our medium. In fact, despite the pandemic and less predictable environment in which we all now live, print is thriving and finding new ways to deliver impact and value, often alongside those other media channels. We will keep exploring these new ways of delivering value together with and for our customers and are excited to what lies ahead of us.”
And he adds: “It is with a somewhat heavy heart and regret that we have made this decision and wish the organisers success with all future shows. drupa has always represented some of the best of what can be achieved at a face-to-face event for the global printing industry. For me, personally, it would have been my fifth drupa. It’s always been a highlight of the calendar and I look forward to returning to future events when the time is ripe.”
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About Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe
Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH, based in Langenhagen, Germany, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Konica Minolta Inc., Tokyo, Japan. Konica Minolta enables its clients to champion the digital era: with its unique imaging expertise and data processing capabilities, Konica Minolta creates relevant solutions for its customers and solves issues faced by society. As a provider of comprehensive IT services, Konica Minolta delivers consultancy and services to optimise business processes with workflow automation. The company further offers its customers solutions and managed services in the field of IT infrastructure and IT security as well as cloud environments. With regard to its office printing solutions, ‘IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Print Transformation 2020 Vendor Assessment’ stated that Konica Minolta is ‘recognised globally as a leader in print transformation’. As a strong partner for the professional printing market, Konica Minolta offers business consulting, state-of-the-art technology and software and has established itself as the production printing market leader for more than a decade in Europe (InfoSource). In the healthcare sector, Konica Minolta drives digitalisation of clinical workflows and offers a broad range of next-level diagnostic solutions. Its Business Innovation Centre in London and four R & D laboratories in Europe enable Konica Minolta to bring innovation forward by collaborating with its customers as well as academic, industrial and entrepreneurial partners. For its innovative service approach that complements their devices perfectly, Konica Minolta was awarded the prestigious ‘Buyers Lab PaceSetter Award for Serviceability and Support 2020/2021’ from Keypoint Intelligence. Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe is represented by subsidiaries and distributors in more than 80 countries in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. With approximately 10,000 employees (as of April 2020), Konica Minolta Europe earned net sales of over 2.34 billion in financial year 2019/2020.
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SOURCE Konica Minolta
