London Calling pre-registration figures up by more than 100%

Duplo’s London Calling event has seen its pre-registration figures more than double compared with last year.

There have been more than 450 registrations for the event so far, compared with a total of around 200 pre-registrations for last year’s event.

Duplo has attributed the growth to increased marketing compared to previous years and the new partners and features at this year’s event.

“We’ve got a lot more going on and there’s just a lot of excitement around the event and the way that it’s grown in the past few years. There’s still six days to go until it starts so I expect the number to continue increasing,” said UK marketing manager Sarah Crumpler.

“I think it’s very powerful that our planning of the event starts with a customer forum. This means that there is that focus right from the outset of what our customers and the industry wants to see, and making sure that we’re providing that.”

New partners Antalis, LumeJet, Neopost, Optimus and Taopix will join established partners Balreed, Esko, Renz, Vivid and Vpress at the event. In partnership with Duplo, the 10 firms will join forces for live integrated demonstrations of their key products and technologies.

The event will also feature seminar sessions for the first time, which will be hosted by the BPIF and Neopost. The seminars will look at the latest industry research, change management and best practice.

Duplo will use the event to premiere a raft of new products. These will include the DC-646 multi-finisher, an integrated folding system for the new DC-646, the DC-646Pro and the Duplo iSaddle System, iSaddle Duetto System and iSaddle Digital System stitching systems.

The entry-level DC-616Pro slitter-cutter-creaser, the DP-F850 digital duplicator and DM230Vi direct mail collator will also be launched at the event.

The post-press vendor will also promote charity Proskills’ education initiative PrintIT! at the event by hosting the launch of the 2014/15 programme.

Marking its 10th anniversary, the 2014/15 programme will see a host of new resources, interactive learning materials and new hands-on opportunities for students to learn about the careers available within the industry. Proskills is aiming to double the number of students participating in the initiative this year.

“We’ve supported PrintIT! since its outset 10 years ago and every year at London Calling we look to help raise awareness and raise money for it,” said Crumpler.

“This year we’ve got a number of students from St Ives School coming in to interact with the printers and to show off some of their winning work from last year’s project. We’ll also be launching a PrintIT! fundraising campaign that all of the London Calling partners will be involved in over the next 12 months.”

London Calling ‘Without Limits’ will take place on 15-16 October at East Wintergarden, Canary Wharf.