Canon Middle East is celebrating yet another successful participation at the recently held Sign & Graphics Imaging show.
In addition to the product showcase, Canon also demonstrated over 25 trendy applications which educated visitors on how to generate additional revenue within their current business. Furthermore, one of the main highlights during the event was the focus on demonstrating the importance of linking Image Capturing (Input) with Printing on Wide Format Printers (Output).
For instance, The ‘Capture & Print’ workshop conducted by Wouter Kingma at the Canon stand showcased how Canon’s Large Format Printers enable local photographers to bring their stunning visuals to life while ensuring to minimise print costs and improving overall efficiency and creativity.
Canon’s focus at the show was on providing visitors with complete end-to-end solutions and added-value services. A total of the latest ten Canon wide-format products, six different solutions and seven 3rd party software partners including EFI, Shiraz, Onyx, Unibind, Summa, Zund and InnovaArt were exhibited at the 192 sq. meter Canon stand.
Among the product display highlights included the Océ Arizona 460GT UV-Flatbed printer, Oce ColorWave 650 and a range of Canon LFP Water-Based Inkjet imagePROGRAF series including iPF9400s, iPF8400, iPF6400s & iPF6450 which were all well received by industry professionals visiting the show.
Hendrik Verbrugghe, Marketing Director, Canon Middle East, said, “Our results from participating at the show has far exceeded expectations and has further reinforced the leadership of the Canon brand within the wide format print industry. By showcasing at the ultimate platform for signage, graphic imaging, screen & digital printing markets, it provided Canon the right platform to showcase its full range of solutions catered to these industries and explain to customers how we can help them deliver quality outputs in large formats.”
Canon this year opted for a bigger stand at SGI. Ayman Ali Canon Middle East’s marketing manager was also satisfied with the quality of the visitors and the number of business leads they captured during SGI. “We met with many prospects and existing canon customers. In this show we focused on applications and solutions and our strategy proved to be right. Visitors to our stand clearly were interested to learn about applications. Our photofinishing solution for example created lot of buzz. People were also interested in our Arizona LFP machine. We displayed many components of a complete signage workflow including Unibind cutting table and Rips from Efi and Shiraz. We had many visitors from all over the region however the turnout from Saudi and UAE was more noteworthy. I met customers from all walks of life including commercial and digital printers, people linked to governmental organizations as well as potential customers who were planning to invest in a digital solutions for the first time,” explains Ayman.
Ayman is also sees a bigger demand for UV printing and flatbed printers. “There is lot of interest for UV printing. People are now realizing the potential of UV printing. There is a growing demand for interior decoration and industrial application as well as printing on fabric, metal and so on. However to be successful a printer must resort to creativity and new ways of thinking. In Canon we try to help our customers to find better ways of doing business and we have also expanded our product range. One of the major benefit of acquiring Océ is that now we are able to help our customers with more products, media and consumables. Océ offers high quality media and Canon is thinking how to develop this market even further.”
Ayman is satisfied with the quality of the show however like many other exhibitors finds participating in a major trade show right after Christmas holidays very challenging.
Show Highlights
Canon’s stand at the event was divided into zones making it easier for visitors looking for a specific product to be easily guided. End-user customers were able to experience a complete end-to-end solution regardless of their needs. The zones included Print-for-Pay, Signage, and Photography & Fine Art which all had dedicated workshop sessions to educate visitors on the revenue generation opportunities within these segments.
