Sean Smyth | Print Expert, Smithers

Speaker and Abstract to come!

Valerie Hawks | Production Lead, Interact Boulder

Attendees at this session will hear how ePac, established in 2016, has disrupted the flexible packaging industry with 15 manufacturing plants located across the country and abroad. Based entirely on HP’s Indigo 20000 digital press, ePac’s unique value proposition offers brands of all sizes the ability to go to market faster, run more promotions, rapidly make changes, create great shelf appeal, economically run multi-SKU orders, and order to demand. 
Carl Joachim | Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, ePac Flexible Packaging

A demonstration of how A.I. technology can be used to significantly speed up digital print lead times by automating various critical stages of the package design lifecycle from creative concept all the way through to print readiness.
Marc Crouch | CEO & Founder, Firedrop

It’s unsustainable to rely on human decision-making for complex job planning. The skills needed to estimate and impose jobs by hand are being outpaced by the increased pressures of emerging technologies. The next generation of preproduction staff needs new tools to predict with speed and reliability how best to produce a job. These tools need to precisely model production environments, leverage IoT for accurate data collection, and rely on computers, not humans, to synthesize results. Tilia Labs develops true Artificial Intelligence software and Tyler Thompson, M.S. in Computer Science from University of Denver, and director of technologies at Tilia Labs, is a thought-leader in AI.
Tyler Thompson | Director of Technologies, Tilia Labs

This session introduces you to Domino, and takes a closer look at a digital corrugated printing solution that is engineered and manufactured to transform your business.
Whether you are a converter or a brand owner, certain common denominators apply.  You want to run your business to make more money, maximize productivity & efficiency, and minimize cost & consumption. 
If you are a brand owner, you are most likely increasing the number of versions, varieties, sizes, and flavors of products you produce to gain and maintain consumer mindshare.  You may even be adding personalization to your packaging for greater consumer and brand engagement.  And you want to minimize the amount of inventory on hand, while having your corrugated packaging supplier provide quick turnaround, on-demand.
If you are a converter, you are most likely seeing an upward trajectory in this shorter run work, which challenges conventional printing methods in the amount of time it takes for start-up, changeovers, and running production.  You want to ensure that you are addressing the needs of your brand owner customers, yet you need to run your business successfully. 
Enter Domino X630i, the digital corrugated press designed to increase productivity, throughput, capacity, and efficiency while reducing make-ready, ink, energy consumption and total cost of ownership for converters. AND meet the demands of brand owners.  
Single pass, water-based digital inkjet printing that is Swiss Ordinance & Nestle approved.  600 x 600 dpi.  No pre-coating required, print directly onto coated or uncoated stocks.  No stopping between print jobs. Speed up to 230 feet (70m) per minute. Uses less ink and power consumption than competing technologies. Environmentally friendly. From transit packaging to display work and everything in-between, allows for a wide range of print options to be considered across the brand offering.  Increase margins, improve workflow, and grow your sales opportunities. The Domino X630i addresses the needs of converters and brand owners.  Attend this session to learn more! 
Lloyd Kent | Senior Sales Manager for Corrugated, Digital Printing North America, Domino

In this session we will explore the power of combining technologies like Artificial Intelligence with advanced workflows, rich content management, color management, and just-in-time file delivery. Technologies like G5 and Cloud platforms are changing the landscape for Brands, Convertors, Pre-media providers and marketing technology firms. This is very likely to completely reshape the packaging industry. Innovators are thriving with niché and even mainstream offerings, and companies that are clinging to the value propositions of yester-year are gradually slipping into the worst of places…. irrelevance
Stephen Kaufman | Chief Product Officer, Esko

Tonejet's first end to end beverage can printing system went live at the end of 2019. The system is helping craft brewers who need short runs delivered in hours and major brands who need digital packaging targeted at events and consumer niches. It is also helping the environment - by removing the need for plastic shrink sleeves, labels and the recycling headaches that come with them. In this presentation we will discuss the economic, environmental and brand activation benefits of direct to pack digital decoration, and tell the story of our partnership with lead-customer Solucan leading to the first full production implementation of our technology.
Rob Day | CEO, Tonejet

During this session, you will learn how the efficient production of digital preprint, from printing through corrugation, has shifted the economics of high-graphics corrugated manufacturing.
Trevor Schroeder | Product Marketing & Business Development Manager, HP PageWide Industrial Corrugated Preprint Solutions

Looking at the pros and cons of integrating an inline digital printer into an analogue flexo line including some of the speed bumps to integrating the software and hardware
James Gill | Account Director, Fujifilm Dimatix

Additional Speaker: Ed Zumbiel, Zumbiel Packaging

Kodak and Zumbiel Packaging will provide insights gained from the implementation of the Prosper 6000S inkjet Digital press.  Kodak Continuous inkjet is different than other DOD inkjet platforms on the market, capable high speed digital inkjet printing at speeds of 650 fpm, with food safe, water based pigment inks, for folding carton applications.  We will explain the technology challenges of printing at speed printing, the benefits of pre coating, print and drying, that have been resolved with the Prosper 6000S.
This session will highlight the real economic and business benefits of digital production and the manufacturing flexibility that has been achieved to respond to brand needs for sustainable growth and the pressure to increase speed to market.  Ed Zumbiel will provide real “in-market” case examples of eCommerce, new products launches and versioned packaging, that accelerated Zumbiel Packaging capabilities to increase the brand value and grow new services.
Rick Mazur | WW Director - Market Development - Packaging/Labels - Enterprise Inkjet Division, Kodak, USA

Moderator: Tom Molamphy, Sales & Technology Manager – Inkjet, Siegwerk

• TOPIC TABLE: How has COVID-19 impacted the digital print industry?
• TOPIC TABLE: Technological Advances - AI in Digital Print for Packaging and Emerging Technologies

This presentation will provide an overview of pigments used for printing. The focus will be on the special requirements that have been created by the transition from analog to digital printing.
Will Dowden | Technical Sales Manager, Printing, Clariant Plastics and Coatings

New initiatives and regulations are fuelling a change in efforts in sustainable packaging. More and more brands and suppliers are stressing compliance to satisfy an uptick in consumer demand—and many are pledging big overall changes in materials by 2025. While “Clean Beauty” continues to grow market share, “Clean Packaging” is following right behind. What are suppliers offering in this regard? While not every company has the ability to instantly go zero-waste, how can brands tell a compelling sustainability story?
 
Today, sustainable packaging concepts made of paper, cardboard and paperboard often represent the opposite of fancy packaging: a rather matt varnish, brown or earthy cardboard or a structured surface can sometimes appear less premium. However, packaging finished with metallic
Alexis Tonneau | Project Manager, Kurz

Cannabis is a unique and growing category, but is using typical images and stereotypes the way to go? Understanding the consumer is key in any product category and we’ll explore what can be learned from traditional CPG. Best practices, successful case studies from other categories, and how to stand out in an already crowded category, are just a few of the areas we’ll cover in this fast paced session. And hopefully we’ll have some time for Q&A
Tom Newmaster | Partner, Relationship Builder, FORCEpkg

Package design and strategy shouldn’t be an afterthought. After all, it’s key to delivering, protecting, and authenticating your products, not just reinforcing your brand identity. 
Emerging technologies in packaging, such as NFC, ioT, and AR will enable greater efficiency in managing, moving, and delivering your product to the consumer; we’ll take a look at how they can help transform your workflow from product ideation through end-consumer fulfillment.
We’ll explore how to integrate strategic package technology into your product workflow in new and exciting ways. Learn to maximize your effectiveness in designing, creating, warehousing, and filling your packaging, while reducing shipping costs and increasing customer engagement. 

Audience takeaways

• How to implement a product development workflow that incorporates packaging, fulfillment, and delivery to maximize sustainability and flexibility?
• How to test packaging strategies without breaking the bank on product profitability
• Approaches to scale up packaging along with product growth for increased margin, including industry-certified testing (ISTA/ASTM/APASS) and comparison of production methods 
• How to build packaging technology into smart warehousing, enhanced delivery tracking, and product authentication/registration

Karen Goeller | Product Manager, Packlane

Choosing digital print for your next corrugated box or display project is just one part of fully leveraging this exciting technology. Automated digital print workflows allow brands to easily order and manage personalized packaging projects that engage consumers in a one-to-one conversation.
Richard Brown | President, The BoxMaker and Fantastapack.com

Consumer brands today cannot afford to engage in massive recalls from mislabeling and other manufacturing errors. Discarding entire product runs is costly, wasteful and impacts a brand’s reputation. Manufacturing mishaps are compelling brands to explore alternatives to traditional visual 2D codes for component parts matching and other behind-the-scenes processes.

A new alternative is an imperceptible, serialized barcode for digital printing technologies, which helps brands accurately track and authentic problem products, without having to resort to blind recalls. Digimarc Barcode is a machine-readable code that carries the same data as Data Matrix or other symbologies. It is repeated across the entire surface of a package, label or clamshell, as well as each component part, promoting more reliable scanning on the inspection line.
Discover how to digitally-print and QC Digimarc Barcode and begin offering your premedia and consumer brand clients serialized packaging and labels that can help them reduce product waste, promote sustainability and save money.
Jay Sperry | Platform Evangelist, Digimarc

Abstract to come!
Brian Fellows | VP of Sales / Director of Digital, Heritage Solutions a Golden West Packaging Company

• TOPIC TABLE: How has COVID-19 impacted the digital print industry?
• TOPIC TABLE: Technological Advances - AI in Digital Print for Packaging and Emerging Technologies

• Customer Acquisition and Estimating
• Order Acquisition and Order Processing
• Scheduling and constraints management
• Color Control and Consistency to Brand Colors
• Production and Tracking
• Shipping and Invoicing

Nick Benkovich | Vice President, Portfolio Product Management, efi