Keynoters Set for Pack Expo

April 1, 2006
Packaging professionals can gain unique and informed insight into the evolving and expanding roles of packaging in the global marketplace by participating

Packaging professionals can gain unique and informed insight into the evolving and expanding roles of packaging in the global marketplace by participating in this fall's Conference at PACK EXPO. Top executives, including Harris E. DeLoach, Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Sonoco Products Company (Hartsville, S.C.), and Dennis McGrew, president and CEO of NatureWorks LLC, (Minneapolis, Minn.) will be among the keynote speakers at the conference, running from October 30 through November 1.

The three-day conference will be held in conjunction with PACK EXPO International 2006, scheduled for October 29 - November 2 at Chicago's McCormick Place. The show and conference are sponsored and produced by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI, Arlington, Va.).

DeLoach will deliver the first keynote address on October 30 at 10:30am with a presentation entitled, "Packaging: A Change Agent in Change."

In this presentation, DeLoach will make the case that the packaging industry must transform itself from being viewed simply as suppliers into partners capable of meeting rapidly changing customer demands. Whether the desire is for ongoing productivity improvement, the need for continuous technology and service innovation, a better way to communicate with consumers than typical mass media provides or a growing appetite for greater outsourcing of total packaging and supply chain requirements, these demands offer real opportunities for packaging manufacturers to demonstrate the impact their support can have on the bottom line.

The keynote presentation on October 31 at 8:30am will be offered by McGrew. His presentation will be titled "Packaging Transformed: The Business Case for Sustainable Packaging Operations."

NatureWorks is the first company to offer commercial scale availability of a family of polymers derived from annually renewable resources with the cost and performance to compete with petroleum based packaging materials and traditional fibers. The company's technology utilizes the processing of natural plant sugars, creating a proprietary polylactide polymer called NatureWorks PLA and Ingeo fiber. Major adopters of the polymers include Wal-Mart, Auchan in France, Del Haize in Belgium as well as water bottle launches in North America and Europe, and a growing development of non-woven applications.