The one-day virtual conference, which is free to attend, will showcase how businesses can adopt connected packaging to create engaging customer experiences, gather valuable first-party data and drive increased sales. Attendees will gain insights into the evolving landscape and discover new strategies to enhance their brand’s competitiveness in our digital world.

The Global Connected Packaging Summit 2024 will feature discussions and presentations from Ivan Gonzalez, CEO at online recycling platform Recycl3r, Thomas Vollmuth, head of brand owner management at developer of print technologies Koenig and Bauer, Gavin Ger, CEO and founder at Australian technology company Laava, and Mohamed Bassyouny, business development manager at packaging solutions supplier SIG.

Other speakers include Steve Wardle, senior manager for design operations and process at sustainable food company Kellanova, Rachel Sheldon, sustainability and innovation manager UK & IRE at sustainable plastic packaging specialist Greiner Packaging, Gregor Murray, from brand advisors Digital Commerce Global, Alice Rackley, CEO at QR code company Polytag and Katie Livesley, managing partner for digital display at customer growth agency Dentsu UK.

The speakers will share insights and expertise on key topics including QR codes, NFC, RFID, AR, AI, sustainability, reuse, innovative packaging approaches and how to effectively implement connected packaging. With more speakers to be announced in the next few weeks, attendees will also have the opportunity to network with a diverse range of industry professionals.

Last year’s event saw over 400 attendees including brands such as SIG, Kelloggs, Amazon, Tetra Pak, Danone and The PackHub. Attendees this year include Tetra Pak, Nestle, SIG, Laava, Recycl3r, Amazon and Greiner Packaging among others.

According to research from creative technology studio and conference organiser Appetite Creative in its third annual connected packaging survey released earlier this year there has been sustained interest in connected packaging over the last 12 months, with 82% of those surveyed stating they have used connected packaging, slightly more than the 81% that said so in the survey released in 2023, and considerably more than the 54% that stated this in 2022.

The conference will be presented by Jenny Stanley, managing director at Appetite Creative, who will seek to help attendees explore the value connected packaging can deliver across meaningful, unique and personalised customer engagement.

Ms Stanley commented, ‘We’re pleased to once again host the Global Connected Packaging Summit, and to welcome a wide range of experts to share their invaluable perspectives on the future of connected packaging and its impact on consumer engagement and brand experiences.

‘Our recent research shows the perceived value of data collection through connected packaging rising, especially in the context of the imminent demise of third-party cookie data. I’m looking forward to uncovering new ways brands can tap into this evolving technology.’

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The combination of Fiery workflow software and Vivid’s VeloBlade cutting systems and VeloTaper flatbed taping systems provides print operators with an integrated end-to-end solution for print job preparation and finishing set-up. Fiery JobFlow automates the submission and job preparation processes, generating print-ready files that include finishing instructions, registration marks and QR codes to streamline the finishing process and reduce the need for rework.

Fiery JobFlow can be used to improve image resolution for wide format print, while Fiery Impose automates tasks such as ganged layouts and booklet-making with customisable imposition templates. For print-to-cut jobs, Fiery Digital Factory provides true shape nesting and helps reduce material usage.

The integration extends to Vivid’s ZipCore Packaging Suite, CAD/CAM packaging software that optimises packaging design. Fiery JobFlow performs job processing tasks in the ZipCore file instructions, including handling CMYK data and the cut line file information. The combined solution helps businesses speed up and automate the everyday jobs of packaging designers, graphic designers and salespeople involved in creating and producing packaging, allowing jobs to be produced faster.

‘This partnership reflects our commitment to saving businesses time and resources from start to finish,’ said Lewis Evans, commercial director, Vivid. ‘The efficient solution allows businesses to improve job turnaround time and increase their daily workload.’

‘We are excited to work with Vivid to develop this new industry-leading workflow,’ commented Terry Garvey, partner alliance director, Fiery. ‘The solution will deliver significant savings, reducing job preparation time to a few minutes and reducing media consumption by an average of 33% compared with traditional methods. This helps increase the profit per job with printers seeing a return on investment for Fiery JobFlow in a matter of months.’

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After opening remarks by Two Sides UK managing director Jonathan Tame, the BPIF’s Charles Jarrold provided an update on the industry’s progress, noting that its net worth had increased from £11.7 billion in 2021 to £13.7 billion at the start of 2023, reflecting a bounce-back from the pandemic period. However, confidence going into the third quarter of 2023 is ‘fragile’ after Q2 failed to meet expectations.

As supply chain issues have improved and confidence is growing that inflation has peaked, top concerns are now around skills shortages and competitor pricing, though energy costs remain high on the list. Packaging and books have held steady as sectors, but the focus for commercial print must now be on data, targeting and analytics, said Mr Jarrold.

The latter point was  fleshed out by Mark Davies of Whistl, who suggested that the digital advertising duopoly of Meta (Facebook) and Google is ‘facing its own disruption’ as a result of falling consumer confidence in the veracity of digitally delivered messages, questionable claims about reach and advertising fraud, estimated to be worth some US $100 billion in 2023. Changing privacy regulations and technical implementations will further erode its advantages, he added.

By comparison, Mr Davies said that print is able to provide a ‘pretty decent response’ in terms of transparency and verifiable results, and cited examples of brands that were moving from digital-dominated campaigns to using print, with direct mail seeing its biggest growth in Q2 of 2023 since 2006. ‘Money is moving out of digital and into print,’ he confirmed.

Canon’s wide-format specialist Matthew Faulkner provided an insight into how emotional states play into purchasing decisions and how brands might use a ‘wheel of emotions’ to understand how and when to best tap into this. From this he explored how graphic imagery can affect emotional states and be used positively to enhance indoor environments, building on humans’ evolutionarily hard-wired responses to certain types of landscapes, and connecting this to opportunities for bold design to feature is social media promotion of retail businesses.

More direct mail ammunition followed from Ian Gibbs of Jicmail and the DMA who warned against setting short-term targets at the expense of long-term growth. Speaking about the price sensitivity brought in by cost-of-living worries, he noted that a campaign of continuous discounting and price comparison sensitivity only produces a customer base that expect further discounts, evidenced by a large drop in brand loyalty in 2023.

Mr Gibbs provided some persuasive figures for print’s value as a high attention channel, and demonstrated that when viewed in terms of cost per minute for the attention of an ABC1 consumer, it is competitive with TV and OOH and cheaper than digital channels.

A strong sustainability theme came from Maya Kjellberg of Ikea, who explained how packaging was integral to the Swedish company’s success. She explained how successive rounds of revision and process redesign are driving down materials usage, increasing recycling rates and reducing the amount of single-use plastic, with a figure of 70,000 tonnes across the 468 stores reduced to 41,000 tonnes in 2023 with the aim of being plastic-free by 2028. Innovations such as paper-based pallets instead of the conventional wooden ones have alone saved the company €50 million a year.

Packaging, or forthcoming EU regulations that affect it, was also the topic of the presentation from Anna Papagrigoraki of the Confederation of European Paper Industries, who explained the current and impending legislation that has originated from EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s ‘European Green Deal’ announced in December 2019. Ms Papagrigoraki explained the various current and forthcoming EU Directives that affect packaging, some of which are still being debated, particularly in terms of the use of plastics, with the overarching aim that all packaging should be reusable or recyclable by 2030. Her advice was, ‘This will be coming to the UK in form, so keep your sustainability reporting clear and up-to-date’

Sustainability was also central to the message delivered by Simon Heppner of Net Zero Now, who argued that the initiative is helpful to business’s long term success, including their ability to attract younger workers who value environmental credentials. He explained how mandatory carbon reporting will be extended progressively to smaller businesses and that finance availability and terms are increasingly tied to ESG performance.

Mr Heppner advocated an approach that involves calculating greenhouse gas equivalent for all parts of a business’s operations, including ‘Scope 3’ emissions, which relate to suppliers, then setting targets using the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) model. Once actioned, reporting and continuous iteration of the process should follow. Mr Heppner is aiming for industry collaboration to develop print-specific data and advice, having tackled eight other industry sectors.

Mark Shayler of innovation and environmental consultancy Ape presented a musically-oriented take on the enduring tactile and other physical properties of print, interspersing analysis of seminal album sleeves with print campaigns from the 1950s onwards. Espousing print as the ‘quiet’ against the ‘noise’ of digital channels, he contrasted the development and packaging (in both senses) of popular music over the decades with other commercial campaigns, and summarised creativity as the ability to ‘imagine a world that is not here yet’.

One of the most topical presentations was from Henry Coutinho-Mason, consultant and author The Future Normal, who outlined the breakneck pace of development in AI, noting that ChatGPT is less than a year old but has already diversified into several ‘custom’ variants to suit different applications, while Amazon and Microsoft have introduced AI-based tools this year. He suggested that this summer’s call for regulation by the big players was actually a means of shutting down their prospective competitors.

Mr Coutinho-Mason noted that basic human needs and desires do not change, but described a shift towards an ‘expectation economy’, with expectations usually defined by customers’ experiences in other sectors. He gave various examples of AI applications, ranging from programming aids and medical report writing to automated dating site review and setting-up of recommended prospective partners, plus insights into how AI can support a range of roles and tasks, as well as enabling entirely new business possibilities such as a recording artist making a synthesised version of her voice available to fans to produce – and monetise – their own songs.

Wrapping up the proceedings, Two Sides’ Mr Tame updated on the organisation’s membership, now at 600 around the world, and presented highlights from its most recent study, from June 2023. This showed rising concerns over data privacy online and desire for a right to choose between paper-based or online communications. Awareness among consumers of the increasing area of European forests is still very low, however, though improved on previous years. Two Sides’ anti-greenwashing campaigns have reached millions of consumers around the world and the organisation is encouraging retailers and brands to adopt its ‘Love Paper’ branding.

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The schedule is confirmed as :

Henry Coutinho-Mason, global lecturer and publisher on AI (artificial intelligence) on the opportunities and challenges AI will bring for the industry. A copy of his latest book given to all attendees;

Maja Kjellberg, Ikea packaging development leader on Ikea’s sustainable packaging strategy;

Simon Heppner, CEO Net Zero Now – What is Net Zero, and what effective actions can your business take?

Mark Shayler, global lecturer, author and brand consultant, on sustainability;

Anna Papagrigoraki, sustainability director CEPI (Confederation of Paper Industries) on changing EU packaging legislation and impact for producers;

Mathew Faulkner, marketing director Canon – Targeted digital print for maximum brand impact;

Mark Davies, managing director Whistl on changing data and digital regulations with new opportunities for print;

Ian Gibbs, insight director DMA and Jicmail – The value and ROI print delivers;

Charles Jarrold, CEO, BPIF will speak on the state of the market and the outlook for print.

The audience will be 150 leaders from the print, paper, publishing, packaging and media industries, providing opportunities for networking during the day and at a subsequent drinks reception in  Stationers’ Hall.

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The event brought together business leaders and BPIF members to connect, share their thoughts and network with key members of parliament and Lords. Attendees heard from host Lord Teverson, Louisa Bull from Unite the Union, and Charles Jarrold, CEO of the BPIF. Lord Teverson said it was ‘really great to have the real world come into the Westminster village’ and spoke of how important the print sector is to the British economy, exports, employment and innovation, while applauding the BPIF’s recent focus on training and apprenticeships.

Ms Bull noted, ‘A lot has happened since we last met but in some ways nothing has really changed. The challenges we spoke about last year, around the cost of living crisis have not lessened; energy, food, mortgages, housing costs continue to rise for everyone.’ She went on to criticise the government’s industrial strategy, pointing out that robotics and automation are not new to the UK print industry, having arrived in the 1980s, and that the biggest ‘job killers’ are AI-based systems that rely on ‘previously human functionality’ to run automated systems. ‘We need to be vigilant to ensure that they are properly understood, regulated and provide for human control,’ she added.

Mr Jarrold confirmed that Britiish print is a £13.7 billion industry, with over 7000 companies and  the fifth-largest print sector in the world, and second in Europe. He added, ‘The links between political and business decision makers are always important, but, perhaps now more than ever in a world with challenges, and an economy finely balanced. I’m delighted at the effort that our team, and all the sector associations, put in to strengthen those links.’

The afternoon also included presentations of awards within the industry: Richard Walker of Harlow Printing was presented with the Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Printing Industry, while the Kathy Woodward award, sponsored by Webmart, was presented to Greg Fitzgerald from Bell & Bain. The Victor Watson Trophy, sponsored by The Printing Charity, was presented to Ryan O’Leary from Adare SEC..

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The first such in-person event the company had been able to hold for three years, this year’s get-together was held under the theme ‘Now and Next’ and featured a remote address by new Xerox CEO Steve Bandrowczak, who said that he had visited nine US cities and a nine European, Asian and  North American countries recently and confirmed that the company’s commitment to its markets was ‘as strong as it’ll ever be’. In addition to recapping the company’s and his personal achievements before joining Xerox, he explained the key driver for further development:

‘We need to add digital services and insight to the production environment; [our customers] need a holistic view of their production environment.’ He went onto promise that Xerox would become more customer-centric, to help customers’ digital transformations. 

A key component in this strategy is Care AR, a suite of augmented reality software capabilities launched via an eponymous new company established in autumn 2021. Care AR is intended to ‘reinvent the service experience’ and was headed up by Mr Bandrowczak prior to the untimely death of previous Xerox chairman and CEO John Visentin. It also incorporates and consolidates the previously separate DocuShare content management and XMPie cross-media creation and management businesses.

Mr Bandrowczak confirmed that Xerox would continue to invest in production printing but also in artificial intelligence (AI); this will also be brought to bear in the production environment by building a database of problems and fixes to underpin remote support capabilities, in conjunction with AR, which he sees as being part of a technological solution to the ‘great resignation’ loss of skills in the print industry, a trend that is still apparent, though slowing. He collectively described these technologies and products as ‘the future’, along with the metaverse which he saw as a ‘$5 billion opportunity’, though reiterating that what happened ‘there’ would also manifest in the physical world.

Take CareAR

In a panel discussion on production print issues, Xerox’s Tracey Koziol, senior vice president, Global Offerings chief product officer revealed more about how the CareAR technology is being used to provide one-to-one help in the form of CareAR Assist, enabling some 10% of problems to be solved on the first contact and around 30% without resorting to an engineer visit. Unsurprisingly, Xerox sees this as having ‘huge’ applications outside print. The other component of the CareAR offering, Instruct, is aimed at explaining routine operation of Xerox equipment, from scanning on MFP devices to toner changes on copiers or digital presses, combining a knowledge base with a ‘digital twin’ of the device in question, allowing components to be highlighted and/or animated via tablet, phone or AR spectacles/goggles to show how to perform the required task.

In addition to helping users perform specific tasks, CareAR Assist is being piloted for predictive maintenance based on machine data. This will enable it to pre-empt premature part failures, ensure that the correct items are on-board when an in-person maintenance call is necessary and advise on upgrades or patches across a customer’s entire Xerox fleet while on-site. Dashboards and data analytics capabilities are also expected to be part of the software expansion. 

Although there don’t appear to be any acquisitions planned along the lines of the abandoned takeover of HP, Ms Koziol told Digital Printer that ‘We have to be vigilant about where the opportunities are’ and pointed to the purchase of Leicester-based Go Inspire this summer, noting that the company has ‘a good platform and a good analytics side’ and that it is ‘important to understand where the strengths are’ before ‘taking [them] global’. She also wouldn’t rule any more ambitious acquisitions, noting that further industry consolidation is expected and saying that Xerox is ‘bold’.

On the print hardware side, development in Xerox inkjet printheads and inks are continuing, along with integration with feeding and finishing equipment from third parties such as Plockmatic. The relevant high-end technologies from the Baltoro inkjet and iGen toner press lines will also be brought ‘down’ to the Iridesse and Versant toner presses.

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The press can produce over 120,000 A4 images per hour with support for a wide range of media types. Since the installation, the company can produce six times more printed matter per day than it was able to before, making the business reportedly £30,000 more per month.

A key aspect of the press’s capability comes from ‘front-end intelligence’, delivered by the integrated Ricoh Pro Scanner (RipSo) software. The Pro Scanner, a 600GB image processor, checks every page automatically during production runs for colour consistency with Fogra standards  using built-in spectrophotometry, said to ensure consistency even across million-plus page runs. The Pro Scanner also automates and – via AI capabilities – optimises over time various routine operational tasks.

Ryan Metcalf, managing director at RNB, said, ‘This investment has elevated RNB to the top of the pile again. It would take more than a week, back and forth, litho printing versions of the base stationary shells and then mono laser over-printing, and the same job takes three hours with the VC60000. Three hours, instead of a week, is a phenomenal upgrade. This new machinery has opened up the ability to deliver three to eight million runs a week, which we can produce on time and competitively.’

Simon Isaacs, national sales director at Ricoh, said, ‘The VC60000 has had a dramatic effect on the speed, the scale and the sophistication of the work that RNB can now tender for, making it competitive for print runs of up to eight million items, with each page potentially incorporating unique text and images, personalised and targeted.’

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Intended to help address the problem created by labour and skills shortages, the VC70000e’s complement includes production automation tools as well as business intelligence capabilities via the Ricoh Pro Scanner Option plus its TotalFlow Advisor and Supervisor software which respectively report and analyse machine and production data.

Ricoh’s Automation Suite combines artificial intelligence and machine earning to simplify operation and provide greater feedback on which business decisions can be based. These applications collect information directly from the user’s workflow to improve accuracy and efficiency in production print, while revealing patterns in data that can inform better working. The continuous feedback should help PSPs build stronger relationships with their clients through more accurate and efficient workflow.

An early user of the Ricoh Pro Scanner Option was German print and mailing specialist Sattler Media Group. Christian Haneke, its Innovation & Solutions Manager, said, ‘The solution enables us to document print standards at any point in the production run for ourselves or our clients and to maintain optimal quality. It also helps to minimise setup times and improve the overall availability of the Ricoh Pro VC70000.’

Both media flexibility and print quality are said to be improved by the introduction of a new ‘undercoating’ unit, which the company says allows a consistent print surface to be achieved on a wide range of media, helping compensate for supply problems with specific papers or brands, and yielding sharper detail for text and line work – helped also by new printhead developments – plus more vibrant colours.

The Pro VC70000e is field upgradeable from existing Pro VC70000 models, which RIcoh says lowers barriers and costs of entry for existing continuous feed operations who want to broaden their application set.

Eef de Ridder, vice president, graphic communications, Ricoh Europe, commented: ‘The Pro VC70000e will help clients to automate their production as well as overcome challenges they are experiencing resulting from paper supply shortages. The original Pro VC70000’s patented dryer technology opened doors to new opportunities around continuous-feed inkjet quality and this new model is the next phase of our continuing evolution to deliver best-in-class inkjet innovation. This unique platform opens doors to new business opportunities by delivering high end luxury applications with next level print quality.’

The Pro VC70000e is available immediately across EMEA.

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The Pro Scanner Option uses 600dpi scanners and a dedicated control unit to gain a ‘near real time’ view of the print process by capturing and analysing pages as they pass through on the web. It analyses print samples, effectively enabling the press to self-assess and make corrective decisions without operator input. It also simplifies operation via a number of prepress checks that include jet-out detection, verification of ink density and checking of both front-to-back and page-to-page registration checking. A further option allows checking of printed page against submitted files, with automatic correction of some issue or highlighting of errors that require operator intervention.

The system’s SmartStart capabilities also include the ability to automate time-consuming tasks such as printhead cleaning and other press preparation tasks, by scheduling them to run when they best fit in with workflow and production demands. It measures the results of the task, noting how they differ in method and outcome from previous runs and ‘learning’ over time to improve them from the accumulated experience.

‘Today’s advances in vision systems play a huge role in digital transformation and workflow optimisation, and Ricoh’s innovative technologies continue to be at the heart of that,’ said Clive Stringer, director, continuous feed and high end software sales, Ricoh Europe. ‘So much of what we do at Ricoh comes from our experiences and our clients, and we then incorporate that knowledge into our R&D programme. Our Pro Scanner Option accelerates and automates that process directly inside of users’ printers, so clients can deliver the sustained improvement they need for steady business growth. And with the addition of AI and ML [machine learning], the feedback loop is continuous.”

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Under a licensing deal, Kodak will take the source code from Perfect Pattern’s sPrint One print production planning software and will further develop the version of sPrint One used in the Prinergy on Demand workflow. Kodak and Perfect Pattern began a partnership four years ago, announced at drupa 2016. sPrint One manages production planning in multiple-press sites including both digital and offset presses and can react to changing deadlines, machine availability, material requirements and cost restrictions or targets using AI techniques.

The new licensing will allow Kodak to more tightly integrate sPrint One’s functionality into Prinergy for more streamlined job preparation; it is already the engine for Kodak’s optional Dynamic Print Planning Service for automatic job ganging and press planning. The closer integration into the core Prinergy on Demand workflow offering will achieve greater automation, improved production efficiency and hence lower production and materials costs to boost profitability, Kodak said.

‘This step will enable Prinergy on Demand to utilise innovative AI technology more easily and more directly than ever by providing an integrated platform with Industry 4.0 and automation features unmatched throughout the printing industry,’ commented Todd Bigger, vice president, software, Kodak Print Division. ‘At the same time, it will strengthen Kodak’s portfolio of high performance, cloud-based workflow solutions, which printers can tailor precisely to their unique needs.’

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