Locals roll on to Labelexpo, Chicago
Chicago is a city long associated with high-end musicals, but this year label printers from around the world will be making the trip to the US for the biggest label show in town.
Digital printing and sustainability will take pride of place at this year’s Labelexpo.
The exhibition, which runs from 9-11 September, attracted 13,256 visitors when it was last held in 2006, and according to those involved, 2008 promises to be even stronger.
This year’s conference will look at the current trends in both local and global markets, highlighting areas for potential growth and development, covering security and brand protection, environmental issues and relevant legislation, managing business in an uncertain economy, the latest trends in technologies and the pressroom of the future, capped off by the Label Industry Global Awards, which are now in their fifth year.
What’s new?
A number of new features have also been implemented such as the Converting and Finishing Pavilion, Gather on the Green and a Smart Label Zone. Inspired by requests from past shows’ visitors, the Gather on the Green pavilion will show sustainable technology and demonstrate original materials developed by suppliers to reduce the impact on the environment.
The Smart Label Zone has been enlarged to gather a higher number of smart labels and RFID technology suppliers. Here, visitors will be able to see the emerging national and international trends in the RFID technology, anti-counterfeiting, brand protection and time/temperature indicators.
The biggest change, though, is the Digital Printing Experience. This pavilion features all the dominant digital printers: HP, Xeikon, Epson, Sum Chemical, EFI and Konica Minolta who will showcase their latest digital technology and offer live demonstrations to visitors.
The changes were necessary in order to engage the crowd and provide an accurate reflection of the industry, according to Roger Pellow, managing director of Labelexpo.
“As a well-established show, we continuously look for ways to develop the event to satisfy both exhibitors’ aspirations and visitors’ needs. We are very pleased with the feedback we’ve had on these new floor additions and we look forward to another successful show this September,” he says.
“Labelexpo provides a unique forum for converters in this market to get together and learn about the latest technologies and to explore new opportunities in the market.”
Each of the three days has a feature presentation on topics including: opportunities and challenges in the North American label markets, understanding the global market to ensure growth and increased profitability and security and brand protection. In addition, there are also smaller presentations, panels and case studies spanning across each day.
Australians make the trip
You would think that in the wake of drupa many Australians would have had their fill of jet-setting. Not so, says Frank Gavrilos, president of LATMA and long-time visitor of Labelexpo. He believes that these exhibitions provide something more specialised and relevant for those who are in any way associated with labels, product decoration, web printing and converting.
“drupa does not have a great broad appeal to the Australian market,” Gavrilos says. “Shows like Labelexpo are more geared to us and we travel to Chicago because geographically we’re so removed that to get access to suppliers and information is highly valuable.”
There are obvious differences between the Australian and American label market and even if the show is slightly skewed towards those in America, labels are still labels and Gavrilos believes that the show is nonetheless of interest to those around the world.
“Just by speaking to people means that you gain a lot of knowledge and there are enormous benefits from hearing the different perspectives,” he says.
“Labelexpo always do a good job of addressing the pertinent issues and anything that helps take us to the next level is going to be helpful and worthwhile attending.”
For more information on the show visit: www.labelexpo-americas.com