I’ve said it before, but it surely bears repeating. When it comes to industry events, there really is nothing to beat the buzz of a trade show floor in full swing: machines flashing and beeping, robotic arms stretching, vision systems blinking, coffee machines hissing, people meeting and greeting... for those of you who have just attended AUSPACK, this will surely resonate.
In the last month I had the pleasure of walking the halls of two spectacular events. In early May, I attended IPACK-IMA in Milan, the first global packaging and processing trade show to be staged after the pandemic hiatus. It was a sight for sore eyes. More than 1100 exhibitors from 27 countries, bringing forth innovation that had been in development and just waiting in the wings for pandemic restrictions to lift.
Mask-wearing and long-distance travel travails notwithstanding, it was worth the trip to Europe to reunite with my fellow packaging industry journalists, and to touch base with Italian companies that are represented in Australia (see report starting on page 54 of PKN's May-June issue). A huge highlight, of course, was attending the WorldStar awards ceremony (see page 58) along with the Australian contingent of winners.
And hardly had my feet touched Aussie ground than the PKN team was off to cover our own big show, AUSPACK. Here too, we were treated to a vast array of innovation that exhibitors were bursting to show off. As our report starting on page 42 attests, a lot of advancement has happened in three years since the last show. On this note, I feel compelled to give this shout out: our local machinery manufacturing industry has much to be proud of, the innovation coming through from OEMs is truly globally competitive and will serve the local industry well as it looks to reshore manufacturing.
One of the biggest trends evident at both shows was digitisation, at the packaging level – smart packaging – and at the manufacturing level – smart factory, incorporating Industry 4.0 and IIoT technology.
But certainly, the strongest trend coming through was sustainability. It was evident in emotive slogans printed on stands, such as ‘Another life for plastic – because we care’; ‘planet approved’; ‘circular economy inspired’; ‘#newlifetoplastic’; ‘save plastic to save the planet’. It was evident, too, in the products showcased both in Milan and Melbourne. As a number of visitors told us on our livestream PKN Podcast at AUSPACK, never before have they seen such a focus on sustainable materials.
Sustainability is moving at an accelerated pace from talking point to measurable action, informing design right along the supply chain. As the big expos bear witness, encouragingly, there’s no going back from here.
This comment was published in the May-June issue of PKN Packaging News.
