IPEX (trade show)

The International Printing Machinery and Allied Trades Exhibition (IPEX) was the longest running printing and graphic arts trade show in the English-speaking world. The trade show was held every four years except for the final show, which was held after three years. IPEX was an international event, serving both the UK and the international print industry.

IPEX 2017 took place at the NEC, Birmingham, UK, on 31 October - 3 November 2017. In 2018 the organisers announced that the 2017 exhibition had been the last. Ipex was thought to be the world's longest running trade expo, with its first outing in 1880. The show had seen decades of success when it switched to Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre in 1980, from its previous Earls Court home, attracting almost 100,000 visitors in the following years. It alternated every two years with mega print trade show drupa, and successfully attracted print business owners from around the world, from Europe - as they could fly to the airport located right next door - and the Commonwealth countries in particular.

It was the launch pad for many new technologies, notably digital printing, with both Indigo and Xeikon launching onto the world at the 1993 show, and shocking the industry in doing so. Both companies went on to achieve huge success, albeit on the back of several ownership changes in the volatile early years, when their technology was largely decried by print businesses.

The demise of Ipex came thanks to an ill-fated decision to switch the location for the 2014 show from the NEC, with its ultra-easy air, rail and road access, and very pleasant surrounds in Shakespeare country, to a somewhat inaccessible location in east London, the Excel Centre, with its tortuous road and rail links. Major exhibitor Heidelberg decided to pull out, causing a tsunami of other exhibitors to immediately rush out of the door, effectively killing the show, and with it a slice of the UK print trade.