The one-day virtual conference, which is free to attend, will showcase how businesses can adopt connected packaging to create engaging customer experiences, gather valuable first-party data and drive increased sales. Attendees will gain insights into the evolving landscape and discover new strategies to enhance their brand’s competitiveness in our digital world.

The Global Connected Packaging Summit 2024 will feature discussions and presentations from Ivan Gonzalez, CEO at online recycling platform Recycl3r, Thomas Vollmuth, head of brand owner management at developer of print technologies Koenig and Bauer, Gavin Ger, CEO and founder at Australian technology company Laava, and Mohamed Bassyouny, business development manager at packaging solutions supplier SIG.

Other speakers include Steve Wardle, senior manager for design operations and process at sustainable food company Kellanova, Rachel Sheldon, sustainability and innovation manager UK & IRE at sustainable plastic packaging specialist Greiner Packaging, Gregor Murray, from brand advisors Digital Commerce Global, Alice Rackley, CEO at QR code company Polytag and Katie Livesley, managing partner for digital display at customer growth agency Dentsu UK.

The speakers will share insights and expertise on key topics including QR codes, NFC, RFID, AR, AI, sustainability, reuse, innovative packaging approaches and how to effectively implement connected packaging. With more speakers to be announced in the next few weeks, attendees will also have the opportunity to network with a diverse range of industry professionals.

Last year’s event saw over 400 attendees including brands such as SIG, Kelloggs, Amazon, Tetra Pak, Danone and The PackHub. Attendees this year include Tetra Pak, Nestle, SIG, Laava, Recycl3r, Amazon and Greiner Packaging among others.

According to research from creative technology studio and conference organiser Appetite Creative in its third annual connected packaging survey released earlier this year there has been sustained interest in connected packaging over the last 12 months, with 82% of those surveyed stating they have used connected packaging, slightly more than the 81% that said so in the survey released in 2023, and considerably more than the 54% that stated this in 2022.

The conference will be presented by Jenny Stanley, managing director at Appetite Creative, who will seek to help attendees explore the value connected packaging can deliver across meaningful, unique and personalised customer engagement.

Ms Stanley commented, ‘We’re pleased to once again host the Global Connected Packaging Summit, and to welcome a wide range of experts to share their invaluable perspectives on the future of connected packaging and its impact on consumer engagement and brand experiences.

‘Our recent research shows the perceived value of data collection through connected packaging rising, especially in the context of the imminent demise of third-party cookie data. I’m looking forward to uncovering new ways brands can tap into this evolving technology.’

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The integration brings together Esko WebCenter, a web-based platform tailored for CPG and pharmaceutical teams to manage aspects of the packaging management workflow from creation to approval and distribution, with GlobalVision’s automated proofreading platform, Verify. The result means a unified and user-friendly workflow that streamlines quality inspections and ensures 100% accuracy, compliance, and print readiness.

A key feature is the single-Click file inspection tools for compliance. The built-in automated text compare, spell check, graphics, barcode and braille inspections ensure that files are compliant with global regulatory requirements by checking files as they move through the WebCenter workflow.

Security and data protection with the closed-loop integration is said to ensure that files leaving WebCenter are securely transferred to Verify, prioritising data security and protecting sensitive information.

Another feature is the seamless artwork management workflow. This reduces the number of revisions needed, improve productivity, and create more synergy in the artwork management workflow by connecting Verify to WebCenter, allowing for single click file transfers between the two.

The Verify integration in WebCenter brings together speed, precision, and security to address the challenges faced by artwork, labelling and quality control teams to save time and maintain compliance by automating proofreading throughout the artwork management process.

Michael Malz, chief product officer at GlobalVision, commented, ‘Esko and GlobalVision teams have been hard at work for many months to bring this new integration to life. Accessing GlobalVision tools from within the WebCenter workflow has been a key function our shared customers have been requesting, as it brings quality inspections right where users need them.’

Jan De Roeck, Esko director of marketing, industry relations and strategy, added, ‘We are dedicated to developing solutions that accelerate the go-to-market of packaged goods. We are always keen to ensure our customers are making the very most of their Esko software and we are delighted to have worked with GlobalVision on this integration.’

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Reconomy combines technology and skills to enable businesses to better manage their resources, helping to reduce waste, optimise their supply chains and contribute in a meaningful way towards the circular economy.

While this involves working directly with print companies, Reconomy has also partnered with several leading manufacturers and distributors, supporting its customers with textile waste management. One such partnership is with Soyang Europe, whereby printers using materials from Soyang Europe can responsibly dispose of their waste.

This partnership came about three years ago with the support of Fespa UK. Reconomy was working on sustainability initiatives with Fespa, while Soyang Europe is a long-term member of the association.

The process works with Reconomy providing customers with a baler to prepare their textile waste. Soyang Europe then collects the bales when delivering new products to customers, with the waste taken to its facility in Altham in Lancashire ready for bulk collection and transportation to a recycling facility for processing.

‘It was a perfect fit,’ said Reconomy’s director Jon Hutton. ‘Soyang has always been proactive in wanting to offer their customers, and the wider industry, waste management solutions for their products.

‘Sustainability is a hot topic for several reasons. Brands and consumers are looking down the supply chain for environmental credentials, so it’s therefore a driving factor in how to not only maintain and gain business, but how a printer positions themselves for the long term.’

Mark Mashiter, managing director at Soyang Europe, added, ‘It provides our customers with an outlet for their waste. This works well with local customers when we deliver orders to them; we can bring any textile bales back with us and store them in our yard until they are collected.’

Originally, Reconomy had sourced a solution for recycling PVC banner and polyester fabrics at a UK site, whereby waste was blended with other polymers to produce low grade products. While this process ended when more desirable material became available to the market, a recovery route was soon set up and, with the support of Wheeldon Brothers, waste could now be diverted from landfill to renewable energy.

However, recycling has since been re-established and material is again being used in manufacturing processes. Coupled with its use for renewable energy, all of this is helping work towards a circular economy.

An additional benefit to the service is that Soyang Europe is willing to take other supplier’s waste textiles along with its own. This option is available to customers using their own transport within a set radius of Soyang Europe’s facility and when making deliveries.

‘Soyang Europe wants to be part of the environmental solution and not the problem,’ Jon said. ‘The take-back scheme provides a platform for printers to demonstrate their sustainability by providing customers with an outlet for their recycling waste.

‘Several customers have engaged with Reconomy further and are now collecting their own clients’ end-of-campaign textiles, integrating this with the collection of their materials. All loads are tracked, and Certificates of Recycling can be issued once the material has been processed.’

The work does not stop here for Reconomy, with Mr Hutton saying the company will continue to work with Soyang Europe, Fespa UK and its wider membership base to provide more sustainable solutions to the UK industry. 

‘It’s our aim to continue to be a driving force in educating the industry on the importance of recycling and developing circular economies,’ Mr Hutton said. ‘This, with the continued support of Soyang Europe, will ensure more customers take up this service.’

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Established in 2006, Print 2 Media has expanded its offering into other areas, picking up a range of new customers in the process, particularly in the education sector, helped by the launch of its school-focused division, The School Sign Shop. Offering everything from school playground signage to wall murals, The School Sign Shop now works with education settings across Cornwall and the UK.

Most recently, Mousehole School, Penzance, was the recipient of graphics including three large maps; one of the area local to the school that highlighted nearby landmarks, another a UK map showing sites of interest and importance, and the third a world map with postcard pictures of famous sights. A fourth graphic was a timeline detailing major historic events.

For this project, Print 2 Media selected Drytac Polar Grip, a white polymeric self-adhesive vinyl, used in schools before, which offers adhesion to any surface including metal, plastic, wood, glass, and brick. Print 2 Media purchased the film and accompanying laminate from Premier Paper Group, the exclusive Drytac distributor in the UK and Ireland.

Print 2 Media printed all graphics in house using its Canon Océ Colorado 1640 and SwissQPrint Nyala 4, while its specialist team installed the pieces on site at the school.

‘School customers are always the best,’ Print 2 Media founder Glenn Wrigley said. ‘The teachers are so enthusiastic and happy to have such a useful teaching aid and the children certainly let us know their thoughts. They are always so positive and take real pride in their new wall murals. We have been working with Drytac materials for over five years now and are always pleased with the end result.’

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Dynamic’s centre for children and young people with disabilities provides help and support to children and families, whilst Candlelighters is a charity helping families dealing with children’s cancer.

Marie Woodhead, partner marketing manager at Konica Minolta (UK), helped organise the collection and commented, ‘Being able to help these charities and the families who rely on them is such a rewarding experience. By working together as a team and with Konica Minolta’s resources, we can do so much more than we ever could individually.’

Iain Blackwood Hobbs, partnerships executive, Candlelighters, stated, ‘From everyone at Candlelighters, we’d like to say a huge thank you to Konica Minolta, not just for their fundraising but for also donating the chocolate eggs. This lovely gesture will bring some joy to the children at Leeds Children’s Hospital, and to their families affected by childhood cancer this Easter.’

Gillian Anderson, environment, social and Governance partner at Konica Minolta (UK), concluded, ‘I am extremely proud of the hard work our Social Impact Group are doing for the charities our employees have voted to support this year. From collecting chocolate eggs to spending the day volunteering, we want to help make a meaningful difference to those who deserve it most.’

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Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the latest developments in signage and speak with experts about how new products and options can help their businesses grow.

Drytac products will be present at Mimaki’s booth, where visitors can see Drytac’s ViziPrint Clear, ViziPrint Deco +, Polar Chrome and both Retac Canvas and Retac Linen being run on Mimaki machinery.

Drytac’s Polar Dynamic Sand will be featured on the Vanguard Digital Printing Systems and Durst Group stand. Elsewhere, Fujifilm will be using Drytac’s Viziprint Impress Clear as part of its live product demonstrations on its booth, while Epson America will showcase the qualities of Polar Grip Air.

Attendees can also visit the Mutoh America stand to view live demonstrations of Drytac’s ReTac Smooth throughout the event. ReTac Smooth will also feature on the swissQprint America stand alongside ReTac Textures Woodgrain.

In addition, Drytac partner HP will demonstrate both Viziprint Impress Clear and SpotOn Clear on its printing machinery.

Glen Fitzgerald, director of sales for the Americas at Drytac commented, ‘The ISA Sign Expo is a highly important event on our US calendar. Running our products on machines from several manufacturers will showcase the flexibility and adaptability of Drytac solutions, as well as the overall quality of these products.’

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With the ability to precisely process large formats measuring up to 239 x 420mm, it is able to process multiple substrate types and materials up to 50 micrometers (microns). With the AG-4220, users can look forward to maximum precision, reliability and the consistently high performance that characterise Blumer machines.

All work steps such as buffering, cutting, die cutting with counterpressure, separating and banding run fully automatically. It is suitable for medium production volumes as well as for small batches and is the only counter pressure die cutting machine in the world that can process large formats labels up to such dimensions.

Exclusively available through Friedheim in the UK, appointments are now available to test this machine in the Switzerland showroom or visit their stand E30-5 in hall at drupa in May – where Blumer will host more ‘world first’ developments.

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Already installed in over 30 locations across Europe as part of the Avery TrafficJet turnkey road signage printing system, the VKR3200 HS as shown at Fespa has an updated industrial design and prints CMYK plus white, with a further varnish option. The printer operates at up to 317sqm/hr in two-pass draft mode, which is also suitable for mesh work, and typically between 120 and 140sqm/hr in production mode.

The VKR3200 HS  can handle two rolls of up to 1.6m width, with independent control of each via a ‘novel’ user interface, as well as single rolls of wider media. Priced from €120,000 for the single row of Kyocera printheads version, the mesh kit and dual roll option may be added, and aa twin-row printhead version is also offered.

Unusually for a printer at this price point, it also offers full integration with Durst’s workflow and analytics software ‘ecosystem’, as well as being driven by Durst’s DFE, which offers preflighting as well as Ripping capabilities.

Distribution in the UK and Ireland is via Durst’s UK operation and distributor ArtSystems; Vanguard Europe has also struck deals with Netherlands-based Pixia for the Benelux region and most recently with Grup Transilvae in Romania.

Fabian Sottsas, managing director of Vanguard Europe, said, ‘Just a week after confirming Grup Transilvae’s partnership in Romania, we are preparing to share news of a new collaboration in France in the next few weeks, proving how committed we are to growing our operations quickly and efficiently. Our mission is to continue to replicate the success of our parent company, which has installed over a thousand LFP printing systems across the Americas.’

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A sister company to Full Circle Events & Exhibitions, Psycho Peacock is based in Salford, Greater Manchester and provides a service from design to installation for graphics in exhibitions, events, retail, museums, construction and visitor attractions. The investments are expected to provide up to six times the previous capacity, with the output from the previous four machines produced by the already installed and profiled P5 350.

Steve Comar, Psycho Peacock’s managing director, commented, ‘This investment gives us the scope and resources to fully deliver on our goals for both graphics and print, across our key sectors, live events, exhibitions and retail for the next three years. We can be assured due to the Durst technology, incredible quality and output metrics, that we can stand by our commitment to continually drive innovation which underpins our values and clients’ needs.’

The Tex iSub production printer is said to have opened up new business opportunities with dye sublimation for Psycho Peacock. The company said the investment in ‘cutting-edge machinery epitomising speed, quality and efficiency’ will ‘revolutionise output.’

Andrew McIntyre, general manager at Psycho Peacock, added, ‘The big thing with the Durst is that it provides the highest print quality, massive extra capacity and flexibility. Dye-sub also enables us to produce sustainable products, using fully recyclable materials, which means waste never goes to landfill. This opens up new business possibilities in a year when we are already beating our own ambitious sales targets.’

‘Delighted’ with Psycho Peacock’s investment into Durst’s technology, Peter Bray, UK and Ireland managing director of Durst Group, said, ‘Offering complete solutions from pixel to output, we continue to lead by innovation and look forward to continuing to help the team fully deliver on their goals. Our technology will help them further with their sustainability goals, commitment to excellence, streamlining logistics and moving towards greater automation.’

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The Jeti Condor RTR5200 is the latest addition to the Jeti high performance line. It is a 5.2m roll-to-roll inkjet printer, making it one of the widest in the market. Agfa claims it ‘sets the standard’ for both speed – at up to 672sqm/hr – and image quality in the roll-to-roll sector.

The Condor prints on a wide variety of flexible substrates, handling up to three rolls simultaneously. It is field-upgradable with light colours and features white and varnish inks for wider application options. The printer also features multiple media handling solutions for large and heavy rolls, and offers an ‘extensive’ range of money-, labour- and space-saving options to automate the end-to-end printing and finishing process.

On the hybrid side, the new Jeti Bronco H3300 builds on the field-tested reliability of the Tauro hardware and software. It is a 3.3m high-end UV LED inkjet printer suitable for printing a variety of sign and display jobs in six colours plus white, with an optional primer. Continuous board feeding enhances its productivity, while independent dual-roll printing allows for the simultaneous printing of differently sized rolls or media. Initially the Bronco will be available with two rows of print heads but it will be field-upgradable to a four-row version.

The latest evolution of the entry-level Anapurna range, which began life over 20 years ago, is the 3.2m hybrid Ciervo, which is pitched as a versatile printer to tackle a wide range of print jobs. The Ciervo is said to bring enhanced print quality and much higher productivity than its predecessor, offering an almost 70% increase in printing speed in production mode. It also features continuous board feeding, enabling efficient throughput of rigid materials, handling up to four boards simultaneously. 

Other members of the Agfa range now get ‘beast’ monikers, with the Onset X3 HS becoming a Grizzly, while the Tauro already had one. Agfa’s ink and industrial printing capabilities are also being highlighted at Fespa, with the decor-focused InterioJet, Alussa leather printer and high speed Inca Orca 1060 single-pass printers for the packaging market.

Arnaud Calleja, vice-president digital printing solutions at Agfa commented, ‘We are thrilled to unveil our transformed and enhanced inkjet printer portfolio, where proven wide-format inkjet technology meets the power of three brand-new beasts. Our overarching ‘powerful by nature’ portfolio theme emphasises that the performance of our printers stems from the way they have been designed. Whatever environment a printing company operates in, whatever its markets or applications, whether seeking high productivity, quality or versatility, there’s an Agfa printer that will deliver impressive results and give their business a boost.’

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