5 Things We’re Watching at FESPA 2026
Next week, we will be at FESPA Global Print Expo 2026 in Barcelona.
After some useful conversations at the Benelux Online Print Event earlier this year, one thing is increasingly clear: the print industry is moving well beyond physical output.
The most interesting space now sits between print, data, automation and digital engagement.
Not print as a static object. Print as a measurable business asset. Print as part of a connected customer journey. Print as something that can trigger action, capture intent, support sales, feed analytics and help businesses understand what is actually working.
With that in mind, here are five things we will be watching closely at Fira Barcelona Gran Via this week.
1. Print Becoming Measurable
For a long time, print has had one awkward problem. It works, but it has often been difficult to prove exactly how well.
That is starting to change. We have been exploring this through the lens of measurable offline engagement, where QR codes, short links and campaign data help connect physical material to digital behaviour.
The shift is not just technical. It changes what print businesses can offer their customers. A flyer, poster, sleeve, label or exhibition handout should not disappear into the unknown once it leaves the press. It should be able to tell a story.
Who scanned it? Where did engagement happen? Which campaign drove action? What happened after the first interaction?
That moves the conversation from cost and production to evidence and value. For brands, agencies and small businesses, that is a meaningful difference. Being able to point at what worked, and what did not, turns print from a line item into an argument.
If this is something you are thinking about, come and talk to us at the event.
2. AI That Has Moved Past the Announcement Phase
AI is everywhere at the moment. Some of it is genuinely useful. Some of it is theatre.
The better question at FESPA is not which vendors have added AI to their product descriptions. It is where AI is already running in real production environments, quietly, without a press release.
Preflight and file preparation are largely automated in forward-thinking operations. Job routing based on press availability, substrate type and delivery windows is happening without manual queues. Estimating tools are getting faster and more accurate. Customer communications are being handled with less overhead. Production scheduling is adapting to capacity changes in real time.
Where AI actually helps in print tends to look less like a shiny product feature and more like a reduction in the number of times someone has to intervene between job submission and press.
The better question is whether it removes friction from a real workflow. That has been a recurring theme in our recent thinking around AI in print and operational automation.
The shops that are moving fastest are not the ones with the most impressive AI marketing. They are the ones that have cleaned up their data, connected their systems, and given automation something reliable to work with. That foundation matters more than the model running on top of it.
3. Orchestration as the Real Differentiator
Disconnected systems remain one of the biggest operational challenges across print and manufacturing.
MIS platforms, web-to-print systems, prepress tools, production workflows, customer portals, finishing equipment, shipping and finance all hold important parts of the picture. The problem is that they often do not speak to each other cleanly. That creates manual work, duplicated data, missed context and drag.
This is why workflow automation in print and API-first thinking are becoming increasingly important across print and manufacturing. Without a layer that connects these systems, every new customer or product type adds operational complexity rather than margin.
With it, you start building an operation that can grow without growing headcount proportionally. The routing logic that sits across connected systems, deciding which job goes where, when, with what information attached, and with what exceptions flagged automatically, is where real scale becomes possible.
At FESPA, we will be watching how vendors talk about integration and orchestration. Not as technical features, but as commercial ones. Printing businesses increasingly need systems that connect. Not because integration sounds clever, but because disconnected workflows make it harder to scale, harder to report and harder to build new services.
4. Smarter Production, and What That Means for Sustainability
Customer expectations keep moving. Shorter runs. Faster turnaround. More personalisation. More on-demand fulfilment. More pressure on margins.
That is not just a production challenge. It is a business model challenge.
There is also a sustainability dimension here that is easy to overlook. Smaller, smarter production runs are not only a commercial response to customer demand. They are also a more responsible model. Fewer unnecessary overruns. Less waste from poorly batched jobs. Better material utilisation. Less energy per job when production is well-routed and well-scheduled.
Print businesses building automation into their core workflows are, often without framing it this way, running greener operations. Better job batching reduces substrate waste. Smarter routing reduces machine idle time. Accurate production data reduces reprints.
Sustainability in print is often treated as a materials conversation, inks, substrates, certifications. The more durable gains tend to be operational. At FESPA, we will be listening for who is making that connection clearly.
5. Physical Experiences Driving Digital Engagement
One of the most interesting shifts in recent years is the way physical experiences are becoming entry points into wider digital journeys.
A coffee cup sleeve can lead to a loyalty page. A table talker can drive a booking. A packaging insert can trigger a reorder. An exhibition handout can connect to a follow-up campaign. A poster can become a measurable acquisition channel.
That is where print becomes more than output. It becomes a mechanism.
For small businesses especially, this is significant. They do not always need complex marketing stacks. They need simple, tracked short links and QR-driven engagement that help them understand whether real-world touchpoints are leading somewhere useful.
The more physical materials can carry intent data back into a business, what was scanned, where, by whom, and what followed, the more valuable print becomes as part of a customer journey rather than a one-off spend.
What We Will Be Listening For
We are spending the week at FESPA listening, learning and exploring where the industry is genuinely heading.
The technology matters, of course. But the more interesting questions are operational and human.
Where are customers asking for more visibility? Which processes still rely too heavily on manual handoffs? Where can automation reduce pressure rather than add another layer? How can print prove more of its value after it has been delivered? And how do businesses build operations that are not just faster and more profitable, but more considered?
Those are the questions we are carrying into Barcelona (and most definitely with a coffee or two in hand!).