Don't Forget Your Socks - a drupa survival guide

So, drupa 2020 has turned into drupa 2021. It leaves a few more months to get ready for your four-(five!) year odyssey into the world of print. Expect 10 pulsating days of action and 18 aircraft-hanger sized halls packed wall-to-wall with your favourite gadgets. Yes, it’s drupa 2021. But how do you survive this particular adventure? It’s a trade show to end all trade shows.

Eyes down for a quick survivors’ guide

1. If you haven't booked your hotel by March, forget it...

drupa attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors, delegates, exhibitors and support staff. Düsseldorf, for all its best efforts, is never fully prepared for this influx. If you haven’t got a hotel room in the city by March, you can pretty much forget it.

Try looking further afield. Cologne is always a good substitute. It’s only a half hour away by train or car and you can get a better choice of accommodation.

But think outside of the box a little. Try reservation websites such as Airbnb for instance. You could enjoy the hospitality of a local family for your stay, or reserve an entire apartment for you and your colleagues. Or try booking accommodation on a boat on the river.  It pays to be flexible – especially when hotels are three times their normal price.

2. Your drupa pass

Your drupa entry pass is also an all-in freedom pass. Enjoy free trips around Dusseldorf on the trams or buses for free. It can save you a pretty fortune over the course of the event, especially when you add up all the costs for your company.

You can buy e-tickets to drupa for easy access to the show.

3. Pace yourself

Most meaningful business is done outside the show halls when you have time to let your hair down in Düsseldorf’s famous Altstadt.  The Old Town is known as the ‘longest bar in the world’, packing in more than 300 bars in the space of a square kilometre.

Try the famous Alt beer, a brew that tastes like a pale ale and brewed in only a few places in the world. Once you have acquired the taste, it is hard to shake.

Just one small tip; don’t try and do all the bars in the space of 10 days. Some have tried and never been seen again…. You still need to do a 12-hour day tomorrow remember?  There are no prizes for spotting an Irish bar – there are five of them in the Old Town.

4. Comfort, not haut couture

You may look a knockout in your six-inch Louboutins, but believe you me, after a 12-hour day on your feet you will kill for a pair of well worn-in Hush Puppies.

Tottering on heels will make your feet swell to twice their normal size and have you reaching for the corn plasters. So ladies (and even a few of the men), leave your killer heels for the evening party scene, or better still, back at home entirely

5.  Public transport runs on time

The German public transport system runs like clockwork. On time, every time. It’s an infrastructure network that Network Southeast can only envy. It also operates 24-hours a day, so if you have dawdled in the Altstadt for a little too long, then rest assured, the train will take the strain.

Just don’t fall to sleep. The InterCity Express (ICE train) can get you to Hamburg or Amsterdam before you know it. Mind you, overnighting on the ICE train could be a short term solution to your accommodation problems (see point 1.)

6. Learn to tell your Sud from your Nord

The Dusseldorf Messe is such a vast arena (306,000sq m) that learning your geography can save you an enormous amount of shoe leather. So learn your Sud from your Nord, your Ost from your West (south, north, east and west). Orientating your nearest entrance to your stand can save you kilometres of needless walking over the duration of the show.

There are also free buses you can take around the arena – hop on and off at designated stops to save your Louboutin leather.

7. Beware friends bearing gifts

The evening social scene at drupa can be more brutal on your liver than a pulveriser. After a hard day in the halls, all you really want to do is slide up to your hotel room and lock the door. But your sales team are already at the bar. They have a lookout on the gate and are prepared to waylay all stragglers.

Don’t expect that ‘quick-half’ to be a quick-half. You are in for an all-nighter. Tonight, tomorrow night, the night after….live with it.

8. Host your press conference where the Messe want you to…

The Messe operates a series of rooms for press conferences. They are well lit, well-staffed and have all the AV equipment you need for the event. Don’t try to host the event on your stand. You will annoy all those press members who have to walk from Nord to Sud and back again.

Apart from that, the Messe is directly underneath Dusseldorf airport. If you want to compete with noise, disruption and a majorly annoyed press pack, try moving several dozen journalists from one side of the Messe and back again just so you can have the luxury of using your own facilities.

9. Pack your painkillers

At some stage of your 10-day journey, you are going to need painkillers (see tip 3, 4 and 7). It could be your head, your knees, your feet or anywhere else – it is going to hurt. Painkillers become currency. Make sure that you don’t go without. You can get a good rate for the Euro from colleagues who have forgotten their own.

10. Don’t forget your socks

There is nowhere – (stress - nowhere) in the Messe that sells spare socks. I know, from bitter experience. So, when you have packed everything else, from painkillers to business cards, don’t forget your socks.

No amount of night washing can get rid of the day. But take a handy tip – a blast under the hand dryer not only turns them into an effective windsock but at least takes out the damp...