A strategic cooperation agreement has been signed between SIGN Istanbul, Türkiye’s industrial advertising and digital printing trade fair, and the industry’s umbrella organization, the ARED Outdoor and Industrial Advertisers Association. The agreement, which brings together SIGN Istanbul’s organizer Informa Markets and ARED, aims to strengthen the gathering of industry representatives under the exhibition’s umbrella, enhance sectoral knowledge sharing, and increase economic added value.
Within this framework, increasing the active participation of ARED members in SIGN Istanbul is also targeted, thereby strengthening commercial connections at both national and international levels and creating new investment opportunities. In addition, it is planned that events to be held during the exhibition will be developed in cooperation with ARED, with a focus on solution-oriented content addressing the sector’s current challenges, areas of transformation, and strategies to enhance competitiveness.
Seda Bozkurt, Exhibition Director of SIGN Istanbul, emphasized that the strategic partnership with ARED will further strengthen the fair’s representative power within the sector. Şahin Acar, Chairman of the Board of ARED, stated that the agreement will provide association members with new collaborations and commercial opportunities, while contributing to stronger international representation of the industry.
The industrial advertising and digital printing industry — encompassing a broad ecosystem ranging from machinery, equipment, software, and consumables to creative application areas serving nearly every sector — draws attention with its multi-million-dollar market volume.
Shifting trade fair dynamics in the sector
The most recent edition of FESPA Eurasia — organized in partnership with ARED since 2013 and widely regarded in the industry as a competitor to SIGN Istanbul — was held in 2024. Despite significant criticism regarding the organization of two separate trade fairs within the sector, both exhibitions had continued to maintain their place in the calendar. Following a decline in exhibitor and visitor numbers at FESPA Eurasia, ARED did not organize the fair in 2025, and it has also been removed from FESPA’s global events calendar.
For the coming period, the cooperation between SIGN Istanbul and ARED is considered an opportunity for the sector to come together under a single trade fair platform.