ST Media Group Int’l, Cincinnati, OH, recently sold the rights to imageWorld, a Mexico-based trade show for signage and specialty printing, to FESPA. This year’s show, which will be held Aug. 21-23, 2008 at Centro Banamex in Mexico City, will be expanded under the new brand FESPA Mexico World Expo.
“We believe FESPA brings a number of critical strengths to this show that will enable it to grow significantly in the future under its new identity,” says Tedd Swormstedt, president of ST Media Group International. “FESPA is very well positioned to build the international representation at the show and expand the breadth of imaging technologies displayed there. We are very pleased to be working with them in our continuing efforts to provide information to Latin American signage and imaging professionals, a market we have served for over 15 years.”
Swormstedt adds that ST Media Group, a publisher and provider of multimedia solutions for the visual-communications markets, will continue to publish Signs of the Times and Screen Printing en Español, the only publication serving sign companies, screen printers, and digital imagers throughout Latin America, with distribution to 16,500 professionals in 20 countries. ST will also continue to host the magazine’s sister Website, www.graficosdehoy.com.
Under the agreement, UK-based FESPA immediately assumes complete responsibility for all sales, marketing, and operations of the event. ST Media Group will remain involved with the show in a consulting capacity over a five-year period, and its products will be used extensively by FESPA in marketing the renamed show.
“Demand for wide-format print is booming in Mexico. The economic and political landscape is more stable than ever, and the time is right for FESPA to branch out into the region,” says Frazer Chesterman, FESPA’s managing director. “imageWorld has established itself as a successful forum for the Mexican imaging market. Now, our ambition is to expand the show, appealing to a broader community of screen printers, signmakers and digital print service providers, as well as textile and garment manufacturers in Mexico and the wider Latin American market.”