The circus is in town, and we're not talking about the colourful Roncalli big top, which was drawing crowds to Vienna's Rathausplatz today, fun though that was.

WAN-Ifra's centerpiece event the World Publishing Expo opens in the Wien Messe tomorrow, with two concurrent conference events.

Things were quiet at the showgrounds today - just opposite the Krieau U-bahn stop - and there's a likelihood that this year's expo will also be the last of its kind. This year's DRUPA put pressure on print exhibitors to choose between the two events, and many are absent from Vienna as a result. And next year's Expo - slated for Berlin from October 9-11 - will be the first of a new cooperation with online events organizer børding Holding and combined with that company's DCX Digital Content Expo.

Meanwhile, the three-day event in Vienna this week has been beefed up with some interesting conference content, not least on the print side. A number of WAN-Ifra people are among speakers, including chief executive Vincent Peyrègne, his deputy Manfred Werfel, and Ralf Ressmann who is director for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Others include Klaus Schweighofer on Styria Media's digital transformation, Kurt Sabathil of Schwäbisch Media in Germany's Ravensburg, and Russmedia editor-in-chief Gerold Riedmann.

A session on print innovation includes contributions from Portguese researcher Pedro Matos, Times of India technical and production director Sanat Hazra, and Abeer Abdalla of Al-Jazirah.

Another brings together significant players in digital newspaper printing including Luca Michelli from the Italian Association of Newspaper Printers, former Kodak digital printing evangelist Jack Knadjian - who now runs its KP Services joint venture in Jersey - and CSQ general manager Dario De Cian, whose company prints regional newspapers with digitally-printed hyperlocal inserts in Italy. Manfred Werfel will also present highlights from WAN-Ifra's Inkjet report.

Watch GXpress for more news and see the WAN-Ifra website for expo details