Great success
for the 1st Balkan Open House “Going Digital with new applications”
by GRAPHCOM in Thessaloniki

The 1st Balkan Open House “Going Digital with new applications” by GRAPHCOM made everybody speaking of a successful event and a great organization. During the 2-days show, visitors from all over Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro and FYROM had the opportunity to attend some interesting case studies, analyses on different Balkan markets and presentations of new technological advancements by eminent Graphic arts experts and product manufacturers, while watching the new MGI Meteor DP8700XL Pro, MGI JETVarnish, as well as Seiko ColorPainter W-64S and Η-104S systems in full action.

Over 135 professionals by approximately 100 companies participated in the event organized by GRAPHCOM, MGI and Seiko, with the support of GRAPHCOM.RS d.o.o (Serbia) and GRAPHCOM.AL.Ltd (Albania). Invited speaker Dr. Anastasios Politis, Research Scientist Graphic arts and Media Athens TEI and Hellenic Open University, opened the convention’s agenda with a brief reference to the challenges for the printing industry in the digital age. Following Mr. Vassilis Antonopoulos, one of GRAPHCOM’s owners welcomed the audience and introduced the convention’s subject, describing the current situation in the Greek graphic arts market in numbers.

Representing MGI France, Mr. Kevin Abergel, Director of Marketing, introduced the new addition in MGI Meteor family, the Meteor DP8700XL Pro digital press with advanced capabilities, emphasizing on the new application possibilities and business opportunities the new product can bring to graphic arts professionals. In the same spirit, Bulgarian OLE Print’s success story described by Product Manager Marin Vasilev, pointed out the new, value-added applications the Meteor previous model (DP60 Pro) enriched the company’s product portfolio with.

Opening the second part of the presentations Mr. Kevin Abergel, MGI, introduced the award-winning digital inkjet spot UV coater JETVarnish, followed by Dr. Todorovic Miodrag, professor of Belgrade Institute of Technology, who stated his research results on the possibilities of incorporating MGI technology in the Serbian market. Finally Mr. Matej Dittrich, Sales & Channel Development Manager (CEE, Near East) of Seiko Instruments, announced the new large-format inkjet series ColorPainter H2 and ColorPainter W by Seiko.

In the showroom, Kevin Abergel gave a thorough product tour on MGI JETVarnish and Meteor DP8700XL Pro systems, highlighting the technological improvements incorporated in the new models. Participants were particularly interested in watching the JETVarnish in real production, treating with spot varnish the cover of All Pack Hellas magazine. The November-December issue of the magazine dedicated in the packaging industry was printed in 1700 copies, with two types of finishing (glossy – ultra glossy) in a single pass. The magazine is going to be distributed at the 2nd “Package & Label Design” Symposium, held by All Pack Hellas in Athens this November.

Introducing Seiko large format portfolio, Matej Dittrich demonstrated the ColorPainter W-64S printer with low-odor, low-VOC, HAPs free inks and announced the new generation of ColorPainter H-Series, the H2 family, with Seiko patented Smart Pass 3 technology and all of the key features currently available in the H-Series (4 or 8 colors, up to 100 sqmh, dynamic dot printing technology e.t.c). The Seiko ColorPainter H2 family was officially launched at Viscom Dusseldorf, end of October.

The event closed with cocktails and finger food at the show room foyer, where participants and hosts took the chance to exchange views and opinions regarding the organization, the current situation of the printing industry in neighboring countries and the possibilities of emerging business opportunities.

Conclusions

His satisfaction of the organization expressed Mr. Gregory Kokkoris, president of the Printing Media Association of Greece (SEMEE), underlining the importance of taking such initiatives especially at recession times – an opinion shared by many of the participants, as well as guest visitors of the event.

The organizers believe the participation was good, in spite of unfortunate incidents; the customs officers’ strike at the time of the event prevented many companies from Serbia, Albania and FYROM to visit Thessaloniki for the Open House. Hopefully there will be no more unpleasant surprises of this kind in future organizations.