GPF PREVIEW

4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Registration Opens

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6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Welcome Reception

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7:00 a.m.

Registration Opens

7:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.

Exhibitor Breakfast

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8:30 a.m. – 8:35 p.m.

Opening Remarks

Glen Gudino
Group Publisher, Packaging, BNP Media

8:35 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Keynote: The Private Label Phenomenon: Past, Present & Future

Ted Maute
Partner, CBX

Private label has been around for well over 100 years. In fact, when retailers started developing private labels, they focused on developing powerful brands with great products that their consumers loved with the purpose of building consumer loyalty to their stores.

Over time as private label evolved, something was lost – quality was compromised to meet a price point, focus shifted to mimicking their national brand competitors and sales leveled off. Private label sales grew when the economy suffered, because of a consumer need versus a consumer want and that’s not how brands are built.

Today, retailers are reverting to the origins private label by investing in developing unique and differentiated products that consumers love and packaging them in powerful brands that consumers want.

Quality, consistency, creativity and innovation are back ... history is repeating itself.

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9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Flexible for Consumer Convenience

Juan Gluth
CEO of GoodBelly, by NextFoods, Inc.

During this session, GoodBelly will showcase how the integration of flexible packaging in its products increases consumer convenience and ultimately helps drive growth and product innovation for the brand. GoodBelly CEO Juan Gluth will discuss the benefits of probiotics for consumers, review the brand’s history, and detail the motivation to evolve its packaging, starting with quarts and single-serve shots to recently, launching To Go Fast Melts for on-the-go consumption. He will illustrate how packaging plays an integral role in brand and product evolution, including what’s on the horizon for this probiotic pioneer.

10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Networking Break

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10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

The State of the Flexible Packaging Industry

Alison Keane
Esq., IOM, CAE, President & CEO, Flexible Packaging Association (FPA)

For the past several years we have brought attendees the "State of the Flexible Packaging Industry" address. This year, Alison Keane returns to Global Pouch Forum to share the Flexible Packaging: State of the Industry report and provide insights on supply chains amidst global pandemic, national election, and how we can all move forward.

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11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Dream Pops Transitions to Recyclable Packaging

Natalie Quarberg
Finance and Operations Lead, Dream Pops Inc.

During this presentation, Dream Pops will speak with support from its suppliers, Lithotype and Atlapac, on the decision to move to recyclable packaging and the factors that went into that decision: consumer desires and brand values, consumer accessibility to recycling and composting facilities, and the impact of a packaging material change on water and oxygen transmission rates and shelf life (and therefore food waste).

11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

The Crucial Role of Pressure Sensitive Labels to Support Circular Economy

Prashant Kotkar
Application Process Engineer, RR Donnelley

To support circular economy and sustainability, the use of suitable material in paper, printing and packaging industry for various types of industrial product applications plays an important role for end user product applications. The influence of environmental conditions on self-adhesive products, such as pressure-sensitive adhesive labels (PSL) affects both the products stored and used.

The focus of this presentation centers on the packaging printing segment, and how pressure sensitive label (PSL) producers have a crucial role in sustainability as they have the large opportunity to benefit from alternatively sourced material used in different ways: from a marketing point of view, where the benefit is visible through strong campaigns and advertising process of sustainable material usage, and a real point where they implement sustainability pillars in daily life.

12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.

Networking Luncheon

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1:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.

Shaping the Future of Packaging Operations

Jorge Izquierdo
Vice President, Market Development, PMMI

This presentation will address key challenges faced in packaging operations, with special emphasis on four themes: collaboration, labor, productivity, and sustainability. The session, based on input from a select group of CPGs, OEMs, Material Suppliers and Contract Packagers, will explore problems and specific strategies that can be implemented to address them, including references to real-life examples and success stories.

PMMI is a global resource for the packaging and processing industry, uniting the industry across the manufacturing supply chain. PMMI Business Drivers provide the industry a variety of resources such as market research, best-practice tools and reports, technical training, networking opportunities and more. PMMI connects consumer goods companies with their members’ manufacturing solutions through the world-class PACK EXPO portfolio of trade shows, including: PACK EXPO International, PACK EXPO Las Vegas, PACK EXPO East, Enlace EXPO PACK, EXPO PACK México, and EXPO PACK Guadalajara.

1:45 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

The Current Market Dynamics of Mechanical and Advanced Recycling

Dan Blackburn
Senior Engineer, Packaging, Kimberly-Clark

This presentation will focus on California Bill SB 343 (truth-in-recycling logo) bill and the Consortium for Waste Circularity technology (Advanced Recycling via SynGas), which are two opposing avenues to single-use packaging waste, but also solutions that focus on circularity.

2:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Design for Recyclability

3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Networking Break

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3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Top Three Packaging Solutions to Prevent Food Waste

Claire Koelsch Sand, Ph.D.
Founder and Owner, Packaging Technology and Research

If food waste was a country, it would rank third behind China and the U.S. with a carbon footprint of about 3.3 billion tons of CO2. The number of science-based packaging solutions to reduce food waste is abundant at first glance in comparison to the few systems-based identified solutions, and assessing packaging solutions by their ability to halt major degradative reactions in food offers a pragmatic- and science-based approach. From this approach, the top 3 packaging solutions to prevent food waste — intelligent packaging, nano-based material science and value chain innovation — will be explored. Included in the session are the impact (dollars of food waste prevented) of packaging solutions for specific foods, as well as case studies.

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

To Be Announced

5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Exhibition & Networking Reception

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7:00 a.m.

Registration Opens

7:00 a.m. – 8:15 a.m.

Continental Breakfast

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8:15 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.

Opening Presentation: Organic Farm Takes On Big Plastic Packaging Problem

Farrah McGinty, Diamondback Acres Inc.
Michael Waas, TIPA

Flexible plastic packaging is a rapidly growing segment, yet 4% of flexible packaging is recycled in the U.S. Unlike rigid plastics, flexible plastic packaging lacks a circular solution because it is often made by blending several materials, is contaminated by food, and is too lightweight for separation and recycling. Single-use flexible plastic is an inexpensive, lightweight, and storage-compact packaging solution. TIPA developed a packaging that mimics these valuable qualities but is made with materials that return safely to the earth.

Diamondback Acres in Lake Chelan, Washington, has been farming organic produce since 1991. Bill and Angell Clark, the farm’s owners, have put sustainability at the heart of the business for more than 30 years. They distribute produce direct to consumers online at chelanbeauty.com to minimize emissions through transport.

8:45 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.

How to Maximize Profits and Accelerate Time to Market

Ron Puvak
Executive Director, CPA

The Contract Packaging Association will take a deep dive into the changes demands of smart emerging brands as well as legacy brands seeking to launch new food and CPG retail products. Data presented will show what these new products are, how they're being packaged, and what challenges these fledging brands are facing getting product to market.

9:15 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.

Mono Material Spouted Pouch: A Success Story

Frederic Mathis
Vice President of Technology, MOM Group

The presentation will construct the successful partnership of Materne (MOM Group, GoGo squeeZ) with watttron in the development of a mono-material pouch, spout and single station sealing units incorporated into the Materne filling machinery. The development was in response to consumer demand for mono-material pouches to fulfill a global corporate commitment of the parent company MOM to provide mono materials by 2025. In order to do this the existing machinery needed a narrower sealing window than the existing sealing units could provide. The partnership was developed in order to improve the machinery output and provide the reliability needed at the spout sealing point.

9:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

Networking Break

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10:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.

Recycle2Win: TREX & CNG Partner to Teach Film Recyclability at K-12 Schools

Stephanie Hicks
Materials Account Manager, Trex Company

Over 700 schools participated in this year's Plastic Film Recycling Challenge hosted by TREX. As the first ever sponsor of the program, CNG partnered with TREX to grow the program's reach and ignite the competitive spirits of K-12 students. In this session, we'll hear from the program leaders as well as a couple teachers crucial to making the first year of this partnership, a true success.

11:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

Maximizing Shareholder Value Through Consolidation

Louis Mitchell
Managing Director, Investment Banking, Mesirow

Flexible packaging is one of the hottest sectors for mergers & acquisitions in the packaging industry, as we wake up to news of yet another M&A transaction nearly every week. This presentation will delve into what are the factors which drive M&A in the film & flexible packaging industry, and how can you benefit from this trend? It will go over some recent transactions and what motivated the decision makers, discuss several of the industry consolidators and review how the flexible packaging industry has evolved over the past decade.

11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Conference Wrap Up

Flexible Packaging and Packaging Strategies editorial team joins Glen Gudino.