I was invited by Canon Europe to attend their Make It ‘22 Event at their Customer Experience Center in Poing close to Munich this week (26-28 April). And it was an eye opening, and inspiring experience. I hadn’t expected such a great event. And as an event veteran of some 20 plus years, this surprised me.

It helps to basically have an exhibition centre onsite! It is a genius idea to have this kind of facility from a customer and sales perspective. But despite this advantage, you still have to create an experience and this takes a lot of planning and a lot of work, and with Make It ‘22, is the best example I have seen of a print technology business creating an inspiring brand experience and learning facility in one place.

The Make It events are not new. This event has been running for sometime, albeit it has not happened for a couple of years now due to COVID. So it was great to see so many Print Service Providers from across Europe attend this event which of course was designed to inform and inspire people to invest in technology, but the vibe and the experience was so much more than that.

Canon have always impressed through their commitment to helping their customers leverage the commercial aspect of their technology, whether it be for labels, commercial print or wide format. From their Business Builder initiative to their Insights Reports, they are thought leaders expressing a genuine commitment to helping the industry grow and this comes to life at Make It.

The event gave participants the opportunity to have a relaxed tour of Canon’s technology. This experience is just so much more than a trade show. You don’t have all of the exhausting elements of a large show like FESPA or Drupa show where you walk miles, you struggle to meet the right person, eat dreadful food and stay in hugely expensive but pretty average hotels! Don’t get me wrong, some shows, like InPrint, Printing United for example get it right, the big blockbuster events in my view are going to struggle in the future. Canon need to continue to invest in Make It, as I am sure this experience adds so much value for their guests.

Make It ‘22 afforded visitors the time and the attention. It gave them all a memorable a journey. While there were technology tours, there was also an amazing stage area with some inspiring talks, most notably, Liselotte Lyngsø from Future Navigator who gave a very informative, inspirational talk about future trends.

In addition to the main stage, there were plenty of other opportunities to get more insight and information. I also attended a presentation by Jo Lloyd who gave a great talk focused on how to effectively sell print, another example of how Canon continue to help their customers.

I have to congratulate the entire Canon team for a great event and I also caught up with Mathew Faulkner, who was responsible for the organisation of the event and asked him how it went.

“This event has been a big success for Canon. With over 900 Print Service Providers from 25 different countries, we have all enjoyed hosting and providing a great experience for these important people to understand the advantages of our technology and how best to use this to enable new opportunities. It has been so rewarding not least because we have caught up with some many people in one week after such a long time in lockdown. We look forward to continuing to assess the feedback from our delegates to continue to improve the experience for them and we look forward to our next event”!

On the main stage, Canon also used this opportunity to launch the new imagePRESS V1000 Kolloczek from Canon Europe introduced the new imagePRESS V1000.

The new imagePRESS V1000 gives print businesses greater flexibility to handle diverse briefs, offering customers exciting formats and a very broad media capability. Full of innovative features designed to make life easier for operators and maximise creative and commercial potential, it’s the ideal investment for time-stretched PSPs looking for a robust and reliable digital print engine that delivers every day, regardless of the print job.

Consistently high productivity

The option of the Multi-Drawer Paper Deck in conjunction with the use of the POD XL and Bypass trays boosts the engine’s paper input capabilities. With brand new transfer technology, the engine ensures even colour distribution, with no risk of sticking when switching between media weights on the fly. New integrated POD-SURF fixing technology controls the temperature of the fixing belt, giving customers a consistent print speed of 100ppm with a broad range of media types and weights from 52 to 400 gsm, including synthetic and magnetic media. Due to the new two-step registration correction, the press has the ability to auto-duplex banner sheets up to 1.3m.

Unscheduled stops and slowdowns are a thing of the past, thanks to remote alerts that inform the operator if consumables are running low. Furthermore, operators can change media, toner and remove toner waste while the press is running, maintaining productivity of the engine.

Automation frees up valuable operator time

The inbuilt spectrophotometric sensor saves time and reduces the level of skill required for colour control by enabling calibration and adjustment at the push of a button, without offline quality checks. New two-step registration correction technology ensures perfect alignment every time, even on long sheets. The optional Sensing Unit automatically detects prints that don’t match the registration and colour settings for the job, then adjusts and maintains these settings throughout the print run, saving time and maintaining productivity.

Dependable quality and minimal wastage

The imagePRESS V1000 integrates an innovative cooling system that cools the paper immediately after fixing for optimum quality, and minimises the risk of waste through warping, sticking or bricking if a job is left standing.

An innovative take on sheet transfer technology creates the optimal transport path for each sheet during the printing process as the positions of the secondary transfer roller and back-up sheet are variable and change depending on the weight of the media.

Compact footprint

With the most compact footprint of any mid-volume digital production print engine, the innovative design of the imagePRESS V1000 delivers the 100ppm production capabilities of a much larger press in a footprint of under 3m², ideal for any print room where space is at a premium.

Thinking of the future

The imagePRESS V1000 meets the highest standards of energy efficiency. Not only is the engine ENERGY STAR certified, but it’s also received the EPEAT Gold from the EPEAT Registry, the global rating system for greener electronics. With the ability to carry out a one-time test and enjoy the associated energy cost savings, gone are the days of trial and error and print wastage.

Every consideration has been given to sustainability with the design of the imagePRESS V1000. If the media in the drawer doesn’t match the settings, the job can be stopped before printing, resulting in reduced waste, power consumption and CO² emissions. The optional Sensing Unit for the engine makes front-to-back registration adjustments on the fly, reducing the need for reprints. And using PRISMAsync or EFI Fiery controllers, operators can check every detail of the print job, including the quality, and make real-time changes on the user interface before hitting the print button, further cutting out unnecessary misprints.

Built to tackle the most innovative applications on an extended range of media types and weights at speeds of 100ppm, the imagePRESS V1000 allows print professionals to turn around a greater variety and volume of jobs at speed without any compromise on quality or productivity.

Check out this link for further info