In the second half of the year, the resumption of in-person events for the printing & packaging sector, opened by Future Factory, represents an ideal boundary between before and after. The emergency is not over, but the engines need to be fired up again at full speed. But what will this long-awaited recovery look like?

In the meantime, the figures tell us what is happening: from the -30% recorded by the European printing market in the last two years of pandemic, we are recovering thanks to a slow but steady growth.

While communication will increasingly be digital, print will have its own opportunities for development in a converging market where editorial, commercial and packaging applications will create more and more synergies, resulting in business opportunities for printers. There is no shortage of vision for the future: a number of graphic entrepreneurs are benefiting from government funding and facilities to develop important technological updates in view of Industry 4.0.

However, the return to normalcy is also bringing a wind of change that is as irreversible as it is vital for our industry. The crisis seems to have accelerated already ongoing trends that see printing companies increasingly exposed to issues such as innovation, servitisation, digitisation and sustainability. These are priorities that must always be interpreted in a broader sense, working together and cooperating with neighbouring and complementary realities of the printing industry.