Thinking about drupa 2016 attendance

When the doors close on Friday, how many people will have attended drupa 2016? The show organizers have already indicated that more than 200,000 people had attended the show through Tuesday. Over eight days that’s an average of about 25,000 per day. If that rate continued through the eleventh and final day of the show, the final attendance would be somewhere around 275,000. In fact though, attendance is likely to be somewhat less than 275,000 since attendance on the last few days of the show is likely to tail off.

The final attendance figures will probably fall somewhere between 240,000 and 260,000. Given that 2012 attendance was 314,500, this might seem like a disappointment, but keep mind that the show’s length was cut from 14 to 11 days. Some drop in attendance was to be expected. Attendance of somewhere around 250,000 would be in line with the rate of 2012. Doing better than 250,000 would indicate that the show’s expansion into areas like packaging, industrial, functional, decorative, and 3D printing has had an impact.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who is eagerly awaiting the final attendance figures. In general though, I think we can already consider drupa 2016 to be a success. The exhibitors I spoke to were happy and many have reported strong good sales levels. Another bit of good news came in the form of the wise decision to revert to a four-year cycle for the show.

Mark your calendars for the next drupa, which will take place from June 23rd to July 3rd in 2020.