Edson Perin
With more than 65 speakers, 30 stands, two Brand Challenges (brand challenges), among other initiatives, the Active and Intelligent Packaging Industry Association (AIPIA) Virtual Congress will be held on September 10, 2020, and with an additional benefit: free tickets to the Smart Packaging Exhibition. The promotion is valid for those who register online for the event in advance. To register for the AIPIA virtual event in 2020, click here.
The exhibition area of the AIPIA Virtual Congress 2020 will have the prominent presence of Sincpress from Brazil, with a booth at the largest worldwide event on Active and Intelligent Packaging. According to Paula Valerio, chief executive of Sincpress, the first center of excellence for the development of Active and Intelligent Packaging in Latin America, located in Sorocaba (SP), the AIPIA virtual event has become an opportunity to engage your entire team.
In other words, the event that would have high and prohibitive costs to participate in person, now, due to the pandemic, will offer a better business opportunity for Sincpress. The AIPIA Congress, before the pandemic, was to be held in person in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in November, which would make the massive participation of the Sincpress team impossible.
In the virtual version, Sincpress will have a booth, this year, open to visitors of all interested in visiting the center of excellence, coming from anywhere in the world. Paula explained how this stand will look and what it will present to the participants, in an exclusive interview with the IoP Journal. Watch (interview recorded on July 23, 2020, in Portuguese):
As in the face-to-face event, the AIPIA Virtual Congress will have several activities, such as those covered by the IoP Journal, in 2019, in the various editions of AIPIA events. In addition, the events presented trends such as packaging becoming powerful media, comparable to the TV of the 1980s and 1990s. This phenomenon, even, is arising mainly thanks to the combination of technologies that activate applications on smartphones, such as Near Field Communication (NFC, a type of RFID) and Digital Printing, with applications that use Augmented Reality to videos, games, websites and even social media.
In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, at AIPIA World Congress 2019, giants such as the pharmaceutical laboratory Abbott, the retail chain Carrefour and Coca-Cola sought solutions ranging from environmental sustainability, recycling and Circular Economy, through product authenticity and combating counterfeiting , even initiatives with technologies that can improve the customer experience and engagement. It is curious that most companies did not seek technologies, specifically, but solutions for business, which implies lower costs and greater efficiency.
For this reason, a company like the European subsidiary of Coca-Cola highlighted a small battalion of five professionals to participate in a micro event within the AIPIA World Congress called Coca-Cola Challenge. The Abbott Challenge, for example, or the Mondelez Challenge (the latter held in the United States in June last year, at the AIPIA Summit New Jersey) mobilized only – although not a little – three executives from each company. As Coca-Cola put more gray matter in this “challenge” than the other companies, it seems, therefore, that the occasion was really important for the company.
Held by AIPIA, the World Congress proved to be a business event with high-tech agnostic solutions: from Barcodes to RFID, and from QR Codes to Digital Printing. According to Eef de Ferrante, executive director of AIPIA and the main articulator of the association, the participants, sponsors, exhibitors and speakers at this event are helping to develop a new sector, a new industry.
Occupying the Amsterdam Conference Center Beurs van Berlage, one kilometer from Amsterdam Central Train Station, the congress and exhibition event lasted two days and had an estimated audience of 220 people each day, including representatives from the 33 exhibiting companies, about 3 on average per company, and the more than 40 speakers. Therefore, due to the limited time, most of the lectures had to be held simultaneously, on three separate tracks.
Abbott Challenge and Coca-Cola Challenge were the highlights of each conference day. According to the business rules, at the end of the challenge, the demanding companies (Abbott and Coca-Cola) have to choose three suppliers from a dozen competitors.
Several cases were also presented at the congress. Carrefour of Spain, for example, showed how it is saving more than 37 tons of CO2 per year with Internet of Packaging (IoP) initiatives. Several brands entered into a partnership with the retail chain to promote a major waste recycling initiative, with financial benefits for engaged customers. In other words, consumers earn points that are equivalent to a cent of a dollar per product to be recycled.
The 2019 event also featured an exhibition area with 33 suppliers of technologies for Internet of Packaging (IoP), business and environmental consultants, developers of technologies for plastics and other packaging materials, among others.
IoP Journal is a media partner of the Active and Intelligent Packaging Industry Association (AIPIA)
