US design specialists come exclusively to Packaging Innovations

This year’s Packaging Innovations & Luxury Packaging London will be the first show outside of the US to host The Dieline design conference.

The Dieline, based in LA, is a design and packaging industry brand expert and event organiser, and has never had its conference anywhere else in the world. 

Packaging Innovations executive director Gerry Sherwood said: “The Dieline Conference in the US gets about 4000 delegates so we are expecting a lot more designers.

“We’ve been talking to The Dieline for about 18 months to get them to do something with us as we recognised we needed the best kind of content at the show. They don’t have a footprint in Europe, so they are working with us to build that footprint."

Sherwood said its US design conference in Los Angeles is the most visited design conference in the world. The Dieline also hosts an annual design competition. 

This year’s Packaging Innovations & Luxury Packaging takes place for the second year running at Olympia London, from 14 to 15 September.

Exhibitors named so far include Favini, Fleet Luxury and HH Deluxe Packaging. There will be more than 170 exhibitors, with Sherwood anticipating footfall to be quite a bit higher than last year’s 4,000 over the two days, nearer the 4,500 mark.

There will also be a first hosting of the Starpack Awards, recognising innovation in the packaging design industry. Hosted in the keynote theatre, it has a broad range of categories covering both the B2B and B2C side of packaging.

Sherwood, who has been working with a team of six over the year to organise the show, sees lots of potential for innovation.

“We will be working with our exhibitors to showcase all the innovation they can find. We get people to submit their innovative work and then get a judging panel to select the top 10 most innovative things that will then be promoted. We will be directing visitors to the things that we think are most innovative,” added Sherwood.

This year will also see paper merchant James Cropper showing its first food contact-approved stock range of paper, available in 12 colours.

There will also be an added VIP package and Packaging Innovations’ Drinks Symposium, with speakers and networking.

Sherwood added: “From a print point of view, we are seeing much more of an increase in companies providing packaging printing solutions. Packaging is very important for the print community because that’s what really mainly is growing. 

“People are planning to do things at the show that we can’t talk about yet. I would urge people to keep an eye out on our website and just come along because it’s going to be a great show.”

For more information and to register, visit the show's website.