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PACK
EXPO Internaonal 2012 (McCormick Place, Chicago; Oct. 28–31) was the strongest
PACK EXPO seen in Chicago since 2006. That’s not just because it
need more than 1.1 million square feet, and hosted 1,966 exhibitors
and 45,338 aendees. The strength of the show rested on how it
helped aendees find soluons to their packaging and processing challenges.
Show Floor Features Led Attendees to Solutions
The 2012 version of PACK EXPO’s customer-centric approach included five exhibitor pavilions — The Pro-­cessing
Zone, The Pharmaceucal Pavilion, The Reusable Packaging Pavilion, The Confeconery Pavilion
and The Brand Zone — and featured targeted “vercal markets” expanded to spotlight the Beverage indus-­try
in addion to Baking–Snack, Confeconery and Pharmaceucal/Medical Devices.
Networking-oriented vercal lounges were gathering places that included “ask the expert” desks staffed by
partner trade associaons. These and other show floor features were among a host of taccs in support of
PACK EXPO’s primary goal: to serve our customers — the aendees. Other customer-centric show ele-­ments
included My PACK EXPO, the PACK EXPO app, keyword searches on Packexpo.com and the Pre-
Selects (printed lisngs of exhibitors in various categories).
It was OK to talk polics at PACK EXPO. For the second installment of the PACK EXPO lecture series, PMMI brought in polical
pundits James Carville and Dennis Miller to opine on the 2012 Presidenal Elecon, held just a week later. Chicago news anchor
Bob Siro moderated the discussion.
Customer-Centric Education
Partnerships with leading trade associaons and exhibitors contributed to keeping PACK EXPO on the customercentric
track by helping to idenfy their members’ and customers’ needs. Partners provided session content and
speakers for The Conference at PACK EXPO, sponsored by DuPont: the Alliance for Innovaon and Operaonal
Excellence (AIOE); Associaon for Automac Idenficaon and Mobility (AIM); the Instute of Packaging Profes-­sionals
(IoPP); the Great Lakes and Midwest chapters of ISPE; the Internaonal Society of Beverage Technolo-­gists
(ISBT); PMMI U; Reusable Packaging Associaon (RPA) and The Packaging Associaon — PAC.
Under the theme, "Educate, Innovate, Advance," sessions were organized in tracks that paralleled the other cus-­tomer-centric
features of the show: Beverage; Focus on the Future – Trends and Innovaons; Food Safety/
Product Security; Manufacturing Soluons; Pharmaceucal and Medical Device; Sustainability/Packaging Materials; Track and
Trace; and Transportaon and Logiscs.
On the Grand Concourse, 22 exhibitors presented free, 30-minute educaonal sessions at PACK EXPO’s Innovaon Stage Theater.
Meanwhile, The Brand Zone hosted market research giant Mintel and materials library Material ConneXion®. Both presented daily
schedules of presentaons of data ed to trends in segments including food, beverage, retail and cosmec/personal care . Materi-­al
ConneXion (exhibing within The Showcase of Packaging Innovaons, sponsored by the Dow Chemical Company) brought a
sampling of the materials in its 6,500-item library — many of which are not commonly used in packaging — for hands-on assess-­ments
by visitors.
On their way to The Brand Zone, visitors got an eyeful from the student researchers at the “Clemson University Presents: The Pack-­aging
Test Track,” exhibit, which was sponsored by Esko. The booth, an outgrowth of Clemson's acvies at PACK EXPO Las Vegas
2011, examined the visual and cognive effects of packaging and their impacts on consumer purchases.
Bringing Up Students
INTRODUCTION
With the help of the PMMI Educaon and Training Foundaon, PMMI provided travel scholarships to 170 students and instructors
aending PACK EXPO. PACK EXPO exhibitors and PMMI volunteers and staff saw to it that the students were engaged, and led
tours of the show floor. The students also engaged in some healthy compeon. The PMMI Student Packaging Contest, sponsored
by B&R Industrial Automaon, and the Amazing Packaging Race, sponsored by ASCO Numacs, required them to engage with ex-­hibitors
to complete tasks and develop soluons.
PMMI’s new iniave to expose high school students to packaging and processing as potenal career choices came to the spotlight
when high school robocs teams from the 2012 FIRST Robocs compeon demonstrated the robots they conceived, designed
and built for the 2012 contest. Massman Automaon Designs LLC and Siemens sponsored the “Future Innovators — Robocs
Showcase.” Dorner Mfg., Flexicell, the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Consorum (Aagard, Douglas, ITW Heartland and
Massman) and Pearson Packaging Systems supported student teams travelling to the event from their local areas.
TODAY’S MARKET DEMANDS; TOMORROW’S PACKAGING TRENDS