Top Packaging Summit 2019
This September the 19th Packbridge has hosted the annual Top Packaging Summit yet again. This year’s international conference was themed around the challenges regarding Circular Economy and how it impacts the industry. The event has summoned over 120 participants within the industry for a day full of knowledge-exchange and networking at Malmö Arena Hotel. The circular concept was summarized into 5 c’s – Circular, Collaboration, Commitment, Communication & Challenge. All parts of the value chain, including material producers, machinery and automation, converters, brand owners, retailers and recyclers were represented both in the audience and on stage.
This year’s keynotes came from Mars Petcare, McKinsey & Company, Coop Italia, European Commission, Sealed Air, Festo, Ball Beverage, Kotkamills, Stena Recycling, European Glass Container Federation, Excess Materials Exchange, Circular Analytics and Hennes&Mauritz. The informative day was crowned by an entertaining talk given by an adventurer and entrepreneur, André Leonardo, who shared some insights from his around-the-world travel, inspiring all to stay persistent on a challenging road towards achieving one’s business and personal goals.
In addition, the audience was engaged in a workshop facilitated by Emerging and the Cirklus Project, where the discussions boiled around the main challenges of driving both the industry as well as individual towards the Zero Waste future. The utopia that at times can be a too large mountain to climb was addressed in incremental steps in small teams, where eventually participants made their own first step by presenting the areas in which they could take action and responsibility already today.
This enthusing day also included The Packbridge Challenge finals, where 12 pitches by top contestants of Packbridge’s international entrepreneurial competition for startups within the packaging industry have fought for the grand prize as well as audience’s favorite’s title. Supporting innovation through linking the new creative concepts with already established industry leaders is the continuous mission of Packbridge.
This year’s grand prize of SEK 50 000 went to Cellugy and their upcycling concept of turning plant waste into ecofriendly film with barrier properties. Additionally, the Best Pitch Award sponsored by Empack was issued to the audience’s favorite pitch by Garçon Wines, who received SEK 30 000 worth of exhibition space at EasyFair’s Empack in Malmö and Stockholm.
We want to thank everyone on behalf of Packbridge for partaking in this productive and inspiring day, where a great amount of ideas and business cards was exchanged.
