DRUPA organisers Messe Düsseldorf are expected to grasp an opportunity to switch the show to a three-year cycle, starting in 2015.

Following the announcement of his retirement from a 18-year stint with the show, director Manual Mataré told UK journalist Darryl Danielli, confirmed speculation and said a shorter duration was also likely.

Britain’s PrintWeek magazine reported that exhibitors and visitors had been canvassed on both issues, and Mataré will recommend an 11-day show every three years from 2015 to the show committee on November 2. An announcement is expected the following week.

He said organisers “had to give in” to industry demand for a shorter show with a middle weekend. Messe Düsseldorf has two other shows – Interpack and the K plastics show K – on a three-year scale, and thee could be synchronised to one big event in 2015. Another such opportunity would not occur until 2027.

Mataré, the ‘face’ of DRUPA and its digi:media offspring for most of a quarter of a century, is handing over operational management to Sabine Geldermann (pictured) during the first quarter of next year, becoming a consultant thereafter. “As hard as this step is for me, I have to slow down for health reasons,” says Mataré (59).

He has worked for Messe Düsseldorf as project director and division director for 25 years, taking on DRUPA in 1994 to develop it as an international show.

Geldermann (46) has experience as project director of the PSI advertising trade fair and the Blenheim’s International Franchise Fair As PSI director, she has been a member of the extended board of Reed Exhibitions Germany since 2000. In 2000 she was in charge of viscom and Pro SiGN.

Since 2009 she has been a member of division management at the German Engineering Association VDI, responsible for distribution and marketing.

“I very much look forward to this new professional challenge and am confident that my excellent network in the technical-scientific world in conjunction with my international trade fair experience are the ideal basis for this,” she says.