Fespa Global Print Expo 2026 has been praised as a highly successful and busy show by visitors and exhibitors alike, with wall-to-wall sunshine beating down on Halls 2 and 3 of Fira de Barcelona this week.
Running with the theme ‘The place for experts’, the flagship show has run alongside European Sign Expo, Personalisation Experience, WrapFest and two new additions – Corrugated and Textile.
The event has featured over 600 exhibitors, including nearly 100 new companies, and visitor numbers on the first day were up around 20% on the first day of the Berlin 2025 show.
Head of Fespa Global Print Expo Michael Ryan said: “The energy levels have been incredibly high. To see everybody from across the world coming together in Barcelona has taken the show to another level. The feedback has been really positive. The engagement has been high, the conferences have been well attended and I’ve seen wondrous prints and applications, and a lot of future innovations around the event.”
While a dominant trend on the show floor was AI, there was also a lot of talk around textile printing, sustainability, personalisation, superwide-format printing, international supply chains and advances in Chinese technology.
Daniel Martinez, SVP and division president of HP Large Format Printing, said: “The show itself has been phenomenal, we’ve seen customers from across the globe, which has been really refreshing to see, and a lot of interest across both the hardware and also the PrintOS Production Hub work that we’re doing, so it’s really coming together this year.”
Mathew Faulkner, director, marketing and innovation, Wide Format Printing Group, Canon EMEA, said: “I think the location in Barcelona has attracted all of the regular audience to the show, as well as the audience in Southern Europe. So, from visitor numbers and quality, it has been really high.
“One of the things I really like that Fespa do is to advance the industry. In the past it was about decor with print areas, and then with the Personalisation Experience, and this year, with the Corrugated show, we are proud sponsors and exhibitors with our new corrPress iB17 technology.”
The 2026 event concluded on 22 May, and Fespa has confirmed that the 2027 Global Print Expo and co-located events – European Sign Expo, Personalisation Experience, WrapFest and Textile – will take place at Messe Munich, Germany, from 6–9 April.
(Source: PrintWeek.com)