Edson Perin
Covid-19 made it necessary to hold online the Active and Intelligent Packaging Industry Association (AIPIA) congress and exhibition event, then named AIPIA Virtual Congress. The largest global event on Smart Packaging (Smart Packaging) would be held in November, in the city of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. Due to the pandemic, the event had to be redesigned to a 100% online platform, with costs much lower than the face-to-face event. There is still time to register for the lectures (€ 295) and the booth area (free, with the ticket number “AIPIA_Guest_Expo”) – click here.
Due to the time zone, the AIPIA Virtual Congress will be held from 5:00 am to 3:00 pm – Brasília time. According to Eef de Ferrante, executive director of the association that has a media partnership with the IoP Journal, hosting the event on a virtual platform is a novelty for AIPIA, which has always promoted face-to-face conferences and fairs. “Virtual events should occupy an important space going forward, even if there is a resumption of face-to-face congresses,” said Ferrante, in a conversation with the IoP Journal, last June.
The exhibition area of the AIPIA Virtual Congress will have 30 companies, most of them responsible for solutions that allow the identification and tracking of packaged goods, guarantee the authenticity of products, promote improvements in the consumer experience, guarantee the sustainability of product manufacturers, among other characteristics that packaging can achieve with advanced technologies, including radio frequency identification (RFID), digital printing, QR Codes, augmented reality and so on.
Among the exhibitors, the Brazilian Sincpress, the first smart packaging center in Latin America, stands out, which developed a virtual stand with several content formats resources to inform about its activities and resources available for the Brazilian, Latin American and worldwide market. In addition to videos, an e-book on Smart Packaging and information available to the visitor’s taste, during the event there will be members of the Sincpress team available to chat in real time.
Remember that the entire event will be in English, without simultaneous translation. The congress will begin at 5:00 am, Brasília time, with Ferrante’s welcome; Dick De Koning, chairman of AIPIA; and Martine Groeneveld, director of events at AIPIA. They will explain in 10 minutes how the virtual event works and its features. Then, there will be an hour to visit the exhibition area.
Throughout the day, several lectures and panels will be held in two or three simultaneous conference rooms, depending on the schedule. The content includes lectures such as “Building an Industry: Smart Packaging 2020-2030 statistics, technology developments and market implementation report and Q&A”; “User case: From Farm to Fork for RunHui Agriculture, China”; “Digital marking now tracks every pack of cigarettes in Europe”; “Smart Packaging for Intelligent Logistics”; “Recycling and Sustainability… where digital fits in”; “Start using your GS1 barcode as a gateway to online experiences”; “Pioneering Smart Packaging in Latin America”, promoted by the Sincpress team; and the clallenges with Takeda and KraftHeinz.
Challenges are activities that I saw for the first time at AIPIA events. In the afternoons of each of the days of the AIPIA Congress last year (and other minor events of the same association), that is, before the pandemic, the challenges took place. Companies like Coca-Cola and Abbot have sent suggestions for solving problems using Internet of Packaging (IoP) technologies. Each technology provider had a month and more before the event to develop a proposal, and four minutes to defend it on the congress stage.
After that, each applicant company had 30 minutes to announce the results. All participating suppliers win award plaques for participation and competition, and the top three win the plaque and the chance to fight for the contract.
The IoP Journal is AIPIA’s media partner
