Heidelberg has announced a new international summit - SHIFT 2025 – which will see the company bringing together the printing industry’s digitalisation experts for a two-day event hosted first at the halle02 events venue in downtown Heidelberg (on 16th September), then moving to the Heidelberg Print Media Center, in the company’s Wiesloch-Walldorf site (on 17th September).
Heidelberg HQ and Print Media Center enjoy a giant footprint at Wiesloch-Walldorf (around 15 kilometers south of the city of Heidelberg) which the company claims is 'the largest and most modern printing press factory in the world'.
Heidelberg Chief Technology and Sales Officer, Dr. David Schmedding, says: “Automation is becoming more important for the competitiveness of print shops as print runs shrink, the volume of small jobs grows, staff shortages increase, and personnel costs rise ever higher. Increasingly, the focus for PSPs is on hybrid print production with an automated and increasingly AI-driven workflow.”
“At SHIFT 2025, Heidelberg will be bringing together the printing industry’s digitalisation experts. to examine the current status of digitalisation and develop potential solutions for automating printing industry workflows, helping print shops with their digital transformation.”
The summit is aimed at managers and employees of commercial, packaging, and label printing companies of all sizes. Participants will be able to learn about digital process control in a hybrid workflow environment that includes both offset and digital printing technologies. The presentations will be complemented by topic-specific workshops that enable participants to select their own focus areas.
A further focal point will be the growing importance of AI, which is already being used successfully in many aspects of production.
According to Heidelberg, with the entire printing sector in the midst of digital transformation, printing industry managers still regard the digitalisation and automation of business and production processes as one of their biggest challenges.
