Hannover, Germany. The second DIPA Symposium will take place in autumn 2021. Organized by the Digital Printing Association (DIPA), the "Creating Your Own Surfaces" conference is planned as a hybrid event in Hannover or, alternatively, as a purely digital event – depending on the then-state of the COVID-19 pandemic. The association is targeting the full range of companies that produce or market tailored, individually designed surfaces.

Consisting of a series of presentations in English and German, the symposium will highlight the latest trends, including reports from the field, on the topic of "creating your own surfaces". It is also devoted to promoting knowledge sharing and networking between interested parties and companies which are already successfully using digital printing or are planning to do so. The presentations and panel discussions will be streamed live.

DIPA.Preview Digital

A glimpse inside DIPA will be offered by DIPA.Preview Digital – an event which will be held on 11 May 2021, directly following the LIGNA .Outlook on digital networking and content platform, which is scheduled to take place in late September. The presentations and interviews with digital printing experts will be broadcast live from the Media Factory at the Hannover Exhibition Center. The program will provide an insight into developments in the digital printing market in general as well as the woodworking industries by Lorenzo Villa, co-founder and managing director of the Italian-based company Density and Karl-Heinz Scholz of S&P Management Consultants. Field reports from users will be delivered by Ali Özyilmaz, Managing Director of MB Digitalprint, and Sebastian Wendel, Head of Product Management and Design Development with the CLASSEN Group. The DIPA.Preview will be rounded off by a Q&A session with members of the DIPA board representing the members of the association.

DIPA (Digital Printing Association) – New members

The formation of the future DIPA association was announced at LIGNA in May 2019 by the Homag Group, MB Digitalprint, Li&Co, Durst Phototechnik, Adler-Werk Lackfabrik and Deutsche Messe Hannover. Following formal establishment of the association in October 2020, additional companies have now signed on, including AVA Cad Cam, CEFLA, ColorGate, CRUSE Spezialmaschinen, Hymmen, Interprint, KBA König Bauer, Plantag Coatings, SURTECO, Teknos and warda design.

The association has set itself the goal of making digital printing accessible to numerous users as an innovative process for surface design and decoration, and of spreading the news. "We are dedicated to demonstrating the wide range of options that digital printing offers today and to providing the necessary expertise," says Ali Özyilmaz, DIPA executive board member and Managing Partner of MB Digitalprint. "We are convinced that we can best advance our goals by working together, and we are excited about tackling the great challenges of the future as a team."

As a cooperative network for the skilled trades and industrially oriented enterprises, the association is geared to all companies and users who are involved in creating custom surface designs. These consist of companies that manufacture digitally printed surfaces, companies that distribute digitally printed workpieces, and suppliers who provide the concomitant technology, raw materials and services.