The Packaging Inspiration Forum (PIF) is a place to do just that. It was set up by the PrintCity strategic alliance and took place digitally for the first time this year.
"Our partners are among the world's leading companies in their respective industries and are highly knowledgeable in their areas of expertise," Rainer Kuhn, Managing Director at PrintCity summarises. "We combine all the expertise within our network, which enables us to tackle demanding projects at the limits of technical feasibility." In addition to Metsä Board, Canon, Epple Druckfarben, IST, KURZ, Zeller & Gmelin, Westland, WeilburgerGraphics and MERCK are members of PrintCity.
Learning from each other, brainstorming with each other – The Packaging Inspiration Forum
Exchanging knowledge and maximising synergy in the packaging world is the aim of the PIF, which launched in 2013. Brand owners, creatives, producers, suppliers and media from the packaging industry attend informative lectures and discuss various key topics in interactive breakout sessions.
Until 2019, this meeting took place once a year for two days in Hamburg. However, in 2020, PrintCity switched to a digital format, PIF on AIR, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We organised a total of eight digital sessions, during which we talked about the joint project, Better Human, and discussed the topics of UV, barrier, food packaging and recycling in the breakout sessions. We opened the forum to international guests and thus, for the first time, had participants from America and Asia. We had up to 250 registrations, which exceeded our expectations, and the feedback afterwards was consistently positive,” says Rainer Kuhn. “But of course, we will be pleased when events can take place on site again. The personal contacts formed through the Packaging Innovation Forum are a great source of enrichment, and enormously expand the possibilities of what PrintCity can achieve."
Bringing expertise together - projects of the PrintCity Alliance
In addition to common conferences and events, the alliance implements sample projects. Due to the broad know-how and competence base in the market this close cooperation of experts enables the realization of challenging sample projects and push them to the limits of technical feasibility. For instance, the packaging of the fictitious brand “Better Human” only uses materials that are produced using renewable energies and the lowest possible CO2 emissions. The paperboard MetsäBoard Prime FBB Bright 270 g/m2 was used for the project – a coated paperboard made from fresh fibres that come from sustainably managed Nordic forests.
“Sample projects are great examples of what we can achieve if we work together as a supply chain and contribute our expertise and they are useful and inspiring to help realizing the potential of paperboard,” Dennis Grotian, Technical Sales Manager, Metsä Board, comments.