The Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association, more commonly known as AIPIA, hosted three major active & intelligent packaging events, one in the USA and two in Asia. The AIPIA Summit of the Americas—co-organized with BXP magazine—was AIPIA’s first venture into the USA and attracted more than 170 delegates to New Jersey in early June. The focus was on disruptive technologies for the new packaging age with an emphasis on how brand owners can benefit from direct brand-to-consumer marketing, security, supply chain and digital identities, and opportunities to reduce waste and improve condition monitoring.
Proceedings kicked off with a keynote by Tod Szewczyk, director of emerging technology and innovation at Leo Burnett. His talk on ‘How the attention economy creates demand for connected packaging’ set the scene for the following two days of activities.
Several case studies were revealed, including exciting projects from the Absolut Company, (Malibu—creating the consumer experience of the future). While coffee experts Paulig, in conjunction with Raflatac, showed how the Internet of Packaging brought the retail shelf to life and lured Gen Z to come out and play: The Paulig Coffee Moments app that made a difference physically in markets and the coffee origin.
Keith Curtin at Zappar demonstrated how brands are already using Augmented Reality (AR) to make packaging interactive. Temptime Corporation’s Ted Prusik showed how visually interpreted indicators can be digitized using a dynamic barcode with a smartphone app to provide continuous end-to-end temperature monitoring while also fulfilling the requirements for product tracking and authentication. ArjoWiggins, which is selling its Creative Papers unit to Dutch company Fineska BV, offered insights into a making packaging smart and connected through a 100% recyclable, biodegradable and sustainable paper with NFC connectivity. Pharmaceutical pack makers Jones Packaging discussed their five-year journey with Thinfilm Electronics to show how they can provide two different technologies that can run at high speed for mass production, using only ‘slightly modified’ machines.
In Bangkok, AIPIA had its first formal event during the ProPak Asia show. Five speakers, including EVRYTHNG (digital identites) HP Indigo (digital printing technologies) Alpha Assembly (printed electronics) ScanTrust (secure supply chains) and a local Thai-based company Silicon Craft Technologies (anti-counterfeiting and customer engagement) attracted a high quality audience of well over 100. With other speakers from EVRYTHNG, Alpha Assembly, Advance Track & Trace, Stora Enso and the Japanese Food Packaging Association there was something for everyone in the 150 delegate audience.
As the World Cup ended AIPIA, with AIPIA’S Chinese partners Prime Consulting, staged its biggest ever Summit in Shanghai, with eight speakers under the theme ‘Creating New Opportunities and Solutions.’ This included a reprise of HP Indigo’s truly awesome potential to create next generation packs featuring A&IP for security, decoration and ant-counterfeiting—often incorporating several features on one pack. In addition Gary Tingjie Li, a research scientist with FP Innovations in Canada revealed a truly groundbreaking printed electronics solution for a paper based substrate.
Author Andrew Manly is communications director of AIPIA, a strategic partner of Brand Experience magazine.