Are we really so invisible?

Hello again,

Autumn is here, the summer holidays are filed away with previous summers and now it’s time to look forward to a really full calendar of events. That might worry some people, but I think it’s good to have lots on the agenda; it’s something I really look forward to. Now we can continue our work to create new opportunities and develop Packbridge to create greater value for all our members.

Looking ahead, we will be at Easyfair in Stockholm, and I will be going to Brussels together with representatives of six other clusters to present our work on innovation and business development. We will also be in Warsaw at a cluster conference which brings together virtually all of the major European cluster initiatives. Then Japan and Tokyo Pak are pencilled in my diary for 10 October. And none of that is to even mention Top Packaging Summit by Packbridge which we are holding this year in Malmö, on 18 and 19 October. Don’t miss it!

When I see this list of all the venues where Packbridge and our members are represented, at both national and international levels, even I’m impressed

But I am worried about one area! And that’s future innovation opportunities within the industry. By this, I don’t mean the companies’ own innovation ability, but interest from entrepreneurs and start-ups in developing solutions for the packaging field.

As part of this year’s Top Packaging Summit by Packbridge on 18 and 19 October, we have created space for start-ups/entrepreneurs to be present and showcase their products and services to the packaging industry; something we call “the Entrepreneurial breakfast”. In order to interest this group in participating in the breakfast, we called more than 100 incubators, which are home to around 1000 start-ups. However, the results were disappointing; almost nobody is working with the packing industry in mind – or can even see the potential. This worries me. Is our industry really so invisible outside of our own activities? Is it that people don’t see the packaging industry as a potential development area or are there other reasons?

There are lots of bright, creative and young entrepreneurs starting their businesses with great products and services in a variety of incubators around the country, and there is a risk that we will be left behind if as an industry we are defined as “late adopters”. Next year we will create different activities within the start-up/entrepreneur sector in order to find out where innovation is taking place in our industry today and how we can work in the future to increase interest in the industry among new entrepreneurs. If you have any ideas or comments on this, I’d be glad to hear them!

On Tuesday last week, we held our e-commerce event in Helsingborg at Mindpark. This featured our new approach where we focus more on the interaction between people. We want everyone who comes to our events to be able to learn as much as possible, to get the chance to ask questions and talk freely with the speakers and other participants. In the light of the feedback we have received, and based upon our own experience, the new approach did exactly what it was intended to, although we have some rough edges to smooth off so that the next event will be even better. But this is exactly what development is all about; in other words trying out something new, evaluating it and improving it!

Thank you once again to everyone who participated and spoke. You can see a short version of this event here.

Best wishes

Johan Mårtensson, CEO, Packbridge