FuturePrint Expo Spotlight - Future of Print. Crisis or Renewal?

Marcus Timson speaks to Chris Jordan, Simon Daplyn and Brendan Perring about the Future of Print. Without a doubt, Drupa 2024 will be a line in the sand. It is the perfect opportunity to gauge the tone and state of the global market. This year will see several launches of large print machines, and as usual, this will dominate the narrative.
Marcus Timson's view is that the more interesting, and defining tech for the future will not be a machine. It will be the tech that is inside and driving it. And this is the kind of tech that FuturePrint partners are innovating in a big way.
Regardless of the scale of Drupa this year, print is now a smaller market than ever before, because demand is smaller. Again, and also not surprising if Drupa therefore is also smaller!!!
So with a decline in demand, we see a changing future. Alongside this is a falling community of skilled operators, a declining birth rate and a very distracted Gen-Z who have other perhaps exciting industries or professions to focus their careers.
But is it as simple and as bleak as all that? Leaps forward in technical capabilities are making things possible that were never previously. If demand for traditional document printing continues to decline, is the potential in new industrial and packaging markets enough to offset this trend?
With uncertainty and volatility continuing to grumble away in the background, the big question we want to pose is:
In 2024, is the print industry in a position or crisis or is it renewal? This session will explore this question with opinions, thoughts and insights.