Though we welcome the New Year 2019 ringing in with new hopes and exhilarating sense of rejuvenation, we are still in deep thought of unforgettable instances and memories we had in 2018. On November 18 in 2018 we lost our founder editor/publisher Shri SK Khurana. We at S-Media Group still mourn the loss of a strong leader who guided every one of us with his focused and determined passion for new ideas and positivity. Our all time endeavour will always be to tread ahead on the path he had set for us.

The year 2019 is the ‘year’ of PRINTPACK INDIA, which is rated to be the drupa of India, where we can tap new business opportunities as the expo has to showcase a string of latest products, technologies and many new things. This biennial event to be held from February 01-06 at India Expo Centre in Greater Noida (Delhi-NCR) is designed to be a complete trade expo for all printing and packaging sectors comprising the wide-format/signage segment. In fact, the real zeal of this exhibition is its showcase of a plethora of machines, materials and technologies related to all segments.

It has been announced that the exhibition space of PRINTPACK INDIA 2019 was totally sold out two months before the expo. The organisers (IPAMA) are planning to further expand the show floor, which is going to be 40 percent larger than the previous edition of the expo in 2017. This clearly signifies that every edition of PRINTPACK INDIA is scaling up to another level. Everybody in the industry must grab something new in every edition of this mega expo. Moreover, PRINTPACK INDIA 2019 will be followed by Mumbai edition of Media Expo 2019 in the same month—yet an exclusive signage expo for signage players to enhance business to another level.

In this issue, Gorakhpur is the region being covered under our ‘Region Exclusive’ column. Our travelling team visited to the city situated in the north-eastern part of Uttar Pradesh for one-to-one interaction with around a dozen of signage players. After interacting with them we come to know that many of them are offshoots of age-old commercial offset printing firms. This means that they enter into the wide-format printing domain after seeing the growing signage market of Gorakhpur. As on today most of their facilities are equipped with entry-level printers and machines, but they are keen to go for advanced technologies sooner than later. We wish them good luck!

Nevertheless, a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2019 to all of you!

– Sonal Khurana
sonal@smediagroup.in