SHOW PREVIEW

Previewing EXPO PACK Mexico 2022

After four years without an in-person event of its kind in Mexico City, the biggest packaging and processing tradeshow in Latin America is back with an unprecedented technological and educational offering for brand owners and CPGs.

By Lilián Robayo, Editor, Mundo PMMI

“It is time for us to meet again!” states one of the slogans that EXPO PACK Mexico 2022 is using to encourage professionals from over 40 vertical industries across Latin America to visit this world-class tradeshow, which is being held between June 14-17 at the Santa Fe Exhibition Center in Mexico’s capital.

The 172,000 square feet of expo space will allow attendees to safely witness technologies from over 700 exhibiting companies, as well as attend world-class conferences about sustainability, gender equity within the industry, IIoT, e-commerce, and much more. Visitors can capitalize on business opportunities resulting from face-to-face encounters between professionals from CPGs, OEMs, and other stakeholders on the value chain.

In the 2022 iteration of the show, international OEMs’ participation will also shine via dedicated halls for Argentina, Illinois, Italy, France, Spain, and Brazil.

Digital tools and options

Through the digital tool Mi Agenda del Evento (My Event Calendar), EXPO PACK Mexico 2022 attendees will be able to schedule their visits to exhibitors’ booths, add educational events they wish to attend to an easy-to-manage calendar, and plan their encounters and business meetings. This tool lets them locate relevant innovations and technologies offered by exhibitors through keyword, industry type, or category searches. This tool can be accessed via the EXPO PACK Mexico webpage (www.expopackmexico.com.mx) or by downloading the iOS or Android mobile web app.

Using the virtual event expertise gained by EXPO PACK and PMMI during pandemic-related lockdowns, an EXPO PACK Online program will also be an option for this year’s show. Registration for this format is free, and it grants access to the event’s digital features, allowing virtual attendees to create and maintain a schedule of events through the Mi Agenda del Evento (My Event Calendar) tool. This schedule lets the user learn about the exhibitors’ offering and watch, on-demand, all of the 30-minute, pre-recorded technical conference sessions in a program called Espacio para Innovadores (Innovation Stage), both during and after the event. Online attendees who wish to visit the tradeshow will be able to modify their registration mode to in-person at no cost.

A pioneering educational program

Mundo PMMI will showcase its world-class program, EXPO

PACK Keynotes, for the rst time in Mexico City prior to the show’s opening, June 14-16. These one-hour keynote presentations will focus on circular economy, robotics, and automation for packaging operations, as well as on the current state of the industry, featuring packaging expert leaders from renowned brands and retailers. As an extension of EXPO PACK Keynotes, and also on

June 14 before the show starts, a high-level panel called “A 360° Look at Circular Economy and Packaging Sustainability:

Tracing the Route towards 2030” will take place. The panel features the participation of sustainability expert spokespeople from brands Nestlé and Danone, retail giant Walmart, the Mexican Center of Life Cycle Analysis and Sustainable Design, and the recycling company Enval.

Also at the event, The Packaging & Processing Women’s Leadership Network (PPWLN) will sponsor an inaugural event called “Women Leadership and the Packaging Industry in Latin America—Boosting Gender Equality and STEM Careers.” This panel brings together a group of extraordinary Mexican women who will share their inspirational stories and discuss strategies and actions they have implemented not only to become leaders within the manufacturing industry, but to promote STEM careers among girls and young women in the region.

And during the show’s nal keynote conference on Thursday, June 16, Mexican engineers from Siemens–Enmanuel Aparicio and Sergio Salinas representing the Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC)–will address the current and future challenges facing the packaging industry regarding the adoption of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Innovation, the tradeshow’s motor

The opportunity to witness innovative concepts in action will occur at the Zona de Innovación en Empaques (The Packaging Innovation Area), a physical space where award-winning and acclaimed packaging solutions from Mexico and other Latin American countries will be showcased, thanks to their design and development contributions to the advancement of sustainability, functionality, and quality. Across this exhibit, visitors will gather technical information of these packaging feats, and learn about their designers, suppliers, the materials involved, and the speci c solutions offered to the markets they have been designed for. Creativity and response capabilities in the face of speci c challenges will also have their own space within the Espacio para Innovadores (Innovation Stages), a series of leading-edge conferences available on the exhibit’s show oor where attendees will discover special technologies that companies have created and implemented to solve speci c issues. Through 30-minute presentations, they will talk about their development processes of these solutions, better practices used, and their results. As previously mentioned, this space’s sessions will be pre-recorded and available for on-demand viewing through EXPO PACK Online. Sustainability and backing for small and medium companies

While touring the exhibit halls, visitor will nd seals on various booths connecting the exhibitor with a particular offering; for instance, the EXPO PACK Verde (Green) seal highlights the environmentally friendly technological alternatives of an exhibitor, whether due to its offering in terms of recyclability, reusability, compostabilty, or biodegradability solutions, among others. One other seal present in the show’s listing and stands is PYME, which will identify those exhibitors who back small and medium-sized companies through nancing programs, discounts, and other types of bene ts. “The robust education program combined with over 700 leading packaging and processing suppliers on the show oor provides unprecedented access to the latest trends and solutions all in one place,” says Laura Thompson, VP trade shows. “The industry has been undergoing rapid change and seeing new technologies, having in-depth conversations, and sharing ideas with industry colleagues is the best way to nd solutions to address current industry challenges.”

Visit pwgo.to/7551 to register for EXPO PACK Mexico 2022. PW