Event organiser Easyfairs has confirmed the speaker line-up for Packaging Innovations & Empack 2024, which has been curated to deliver what is claimed as, ‘a unique, 360-degree view of the packaging sector.’
Packaging Innovations & Empack 2024 take place on 21-22 February at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. On the first day, Nick Kirk, technical director at British Glass, will draw on over three decades of experience to articulate the challenges of ensuring that glass is a sustainable packaging option for the future; whilst Nicola Harrington, packaging development director for the UK and Ireland at DHL, will delve into the need to ‘radically rethink’ packaging supply chains.
The experienced former principal engineer of Dyson, Ben Edmonds, will present on the Innovation & Design Stage, with Julien Tremblin, general manager at TerraCycle Europe, taking to the Circular Economy Stage. Leading a debate on government collection and packaging reforms and their impact on climate change will be Margaret Bates and Martin Kersh. Ms Bates is Defra’s newly-appointed head of EPR scheme administrator and also a former ORRL executive director, with Mr Kersh in post as executive director of the Foodservice Packaging Association. They will lead two opposing teams of industry experts in this debate.
On the Supply Chain & Manufacturing Stage, speakers include: Josephine Coombe, chief commercial officer at Nulogy; Anita Donohoe, group managing director, logistics and fulfilment at Kinaxia Logistics; and Thomas Verbeke, global coman excellence manager at Danone.
Other speakers on the first day of Packaging Innovations & Empack 2024 are to include Tom Barton, founder of Honest Burgers; Daniel Hoare, director of sales for Congo Brands (Prime); and Felix Gruenewald, associate partner, McKinsey.
Day two sees Fraser Doherty MBE, co-founder and CEO of Beer52 and Wine52, share his adventures in packaging, while representatives from Aldi UK, Ocado Retail, CHEP and InnovateUK will share their ‘Lessons from The Refill Coalition’. Peter MacQueen, principal lecturer – apprenticeships at Sheffield Hallam University will talk about packaging recruitment. Paul Davidson of Innovate UK will chair a panel on returnable and refillable packaging with guests including Stuart Chidley (co-founder of both Beauty Kitchen and Reposit), Sam Higginson (head of food technology, Marks & Spencer), Hugo Lynch (Abel & Cole’s sustainability lead), and others. Zoi Roupakia, research associate at the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, will moderate a Women in Manufacturing panel on the Supply Chain Stage comprising BCMPA CEO Emma Verkaik, PHD Marketing’s Jo Stephenson, Nicola Peacock of The Printing Charity, and Nicola Jones, manager, steel packaging recycling at Tata Steel.
Also speaking is to be Andrew Masterson, detective inspector, Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) within the City of London Police, who will address brand protection.
