Four months prior to the start of the trade show on 31st May, the programme for drupa cube, the conference and event location at drupa 2016, is now largely set. The primary partner for development and delivery of innovative content for drupa cube 2016 is international innovation firm The Medici Group and its founder and CEO Frans Johansson. Johansson caused somewhat of a furor with his 2004 book "The Medici Effect," and since then has been the go-to expert for the concepts of thinking and acting outside fixed limits and the "out-of-the-box principle."

Worldwide brands such as American Express, IBM, Nike, Volvo and The Walt Disney Company have already been drawing on the strategic expertise of The Medici Group. Now drupa is doing the same. "With The Medici Group, we have precisely the right partner at our side for drupa cube. A consistent approach to change management is absolutely necessary to master the challenges in the print, packaging and media sectors", says Sabine Geldermann, Director at drupa. "I extremely pleased that we will be presenting a high quality and clearly structured programme that will appeal both to the print and media industry as well as to web agencies, brands and print buyers, with The Medici Group and other impressive thought leaders at its core."

In his opening keynote on 31st May, bestselling author Frans Johansson (The Medici Effect) will base his talk on the drupa theme "touch the future" and ‘Intersectional Thinking’. The core question that will be addressed is, "What happens when technological revolutions meet an industry that has been around for a millennium?". The second keynote on 2nd June will build on this and explore key situations where one can forge a route to a future vision. The third keynote speaker on 6th June, Silas Amos ‎(Founder of Silas Amos Ltd. Design Thought), has worked as a designer and strategic partner for several firms in the FMCG industry, including AB InBev, Bacardi, Diageo, Heinz, Mars and Unilever. The final keynote will be held on 8th June with Shane Wall, Chief Technology Officer at HP and Global Head of HP Labs, as the speaker.

There will be a mix of the following five sessions across the eleven days:

Business Evolution: Twelve 30-minute slots are aimed primarily at decision-makers in the printing industry who are focusing on increasing efficiency and profits within their companies. Accordingly, both "best practices" and business models, as well as investment strategies and human resources management will be discussed. Already on the list of speakers are: Ronan Zioni/HP, Neil Falconer/Print Future, Ulbe Jelluma/Print Power and Chris Bondy/RIT's School of Media Sciences.

Technology: Eleven 30-minute slots will focus on technological innovations and their new areas of application. How can these innovations be integrated into existing workflows and what will be the consequences? These and other topics are aimed at decision-makers and management at printing firms, and will also appeal to all other drupa visitors who have an interest in technology. One special event of note is the three one-hour "Gladiator Sessions" comparing two converging technologies where the pros and cons are discussed with a moderator. The following speakers have already committed to participate: Chris Bondy (RIT’s School of Media Sciences /USA), Joanna Stephenson (DataLase/UK) and Lilach Sapir (Massivit 3D printing/Israel).

Intersectional: These six sessions, led by The Medici Group, will focus on “Innovation @ the Intersection” and will encompass the six highlight topics of drupa 2016 (multichannel, print, functional printing, 3D-Printing, packaging production and green printing). In each interactive lecture slot, several of these highlight topics will be combined with one another using specific application examples, such as functional printing & packaging print, 3D printing & sustainability or multichannel & print.

C-Level: The four invitation-only slots in this programme segment are aimed at a fixed, defined subscriber group at management level as well as at exhibitors and visitors. These C-level sessions will directly follow the four keynotes and are formatted as interactive workshops where strategic insider knowledge is conveyed. The keynote speaker whose talk precedes each session will act as the moderator.

The strategic and creative design of the programme and on-site implementation have been entrusted to London-based brand experience agency FreemanXP. "Just as Gutenberg revolutionised communications by converging the spoken word with print, we are seeing new crossroads that are spawning unimaginable results in every sector. Be it personalisation of printed products, 'fabbing' or even human organ printing, drupa is a showcase for how we 'Touch the Future' of print. With The Medici Group, drupa Innovation Partner 2016, we have evolved the drupa cube experience to encourage conversation and convergent thinking that will lead to the co-creation, re-imagination and re-invention of the future of printing," added Jordan Waid, Vice President Brand Experience, FreemanXP EMEA.

A provisional programme will be online from February; the complete programme is scheduled to be online in March. An extra special feature: participation in the cube programme is free of charge for drupa visitors, included in the daily ticket price of € 65 (or € 45 for the online ticket).