International print and cross-media solutions trade show DRUPA is responding to a changing industry by increasing the frequency of exhibitions.

Traditionally held every four years at the giant Messe in Düsseldorf, will switch switch to a three-year cycle after 2016, with successive events in May of 2019, 2022 and 2025.

The change - which will also draw it away from a clash with Interpack in 2020 - was agreed during a committee meeting there yesterday.

Advisory board chairman Claus Bolza-Schünemann, who is also president of KBA, says the entire print process chain has changed radically because of the Internet and digital technologies: "New applications and solutions are developing and opening up new fields of business. At the same time, there is more focus on innovative technologies, such as 3D printing, printed electronics and functional printing."

He says customers need an overview of the latest technology and are inspired to use new business models and solutions. "DRUPA is the only specialist trade fair in the world to offer this, and will do so every three years in the future."

Messe Düsseldorf president Werner Matthias Dornscheidt acknowledged that exhibitors who specialise in packaging printing would have found 2020 "an incredibly stressful year".

Precise dates have not yet been finalised, but May is targetted for the event. The 2016 show will be heldfromMay 31 to June 10.