On July 23rd, the Midlands Packaging Society hosted the 13th annual Pack to the Future conference at Loughborough University.
Bringing together over 100 professionals from materials, supply chain, production, branding, academia, and retail, the event focused on a timely and transformative theme: “Artificial Intelligence: its Impact on the Packaging Supply Chain.” The conference served as a dynamic platform for forward-thinking discussion, collaboration, and insight into how AI is set to reshape every stage of the packaging lifecycle.
The keynote presentation was delivered by Tim Barbary, the society’s chairman, who discussed the impact of artificial intelligence on packaging. The session featured an interactive format in which Tim engaged in a dialogue with an AI-driven bot that responded to his questions. The presentation illustrated developments in AI-human interaction.
Stefan Casey of io.tt, the platform for interactive packaging, was able to demonstrate how AI and connected packaging could work in the real world by using barcodes and NFC (near field communication). Such tools provide ‘touch points’ for smart phones, providing links to a brand’s social media pages and websites, enabling consumers to acquire useful information that had only been available at a restricted level on packaging and labelling because of size limitations.
Camilla Young of GS1 talked about the end of the line for linear bar codes in the retail environment. Next year sees the introduction of new standards with the mandate of the application of 2D barcodes to all retail packaging. Such codes will replace the familiar Universal Product Code (UPC) that has been used for the past 50 years. The introduction of 2D barcodes means that more information can be carried at pack level with the new codes able to convey additional information such as a unique identifier, best before/use by dates, batch codes, distribution routing information and smartphone readable connections to marketing promotions activities.
The morning session was tidily rounded off by Anthony Hornsby of Sherbourne Recycling. Anthony delivered a fascinating presentation with videos that showed a highly mechanised and AI driven recycling facility, funded by a group of local authorities. In this respect AI is trained to recognise individual packaging and automatically sort it into its relevant recycling streams.
The afternoon sessions covered subjects such as ‘The Future of Plastic Packaging’ delivered by Brian Lodge of the British Plastics Federation and ‘AI in Manufacturing’ with Bhav Patel of MTC.
AI is prominent in Loughborough University’s research and innovation, and Professor Georgina Cosma, Doctor Nikki Clark and Paul Russell demonstrated how AI could be deployed in packaging design, but also the importance of human intervention. They showcased how they teach students to use AI responsibly as part of the design process, making sure they are honest, open and transparent about their use of AI, but also the importance of their own design critical judgment.
Liam Barbary, who chaired this year’s conference said. “This was a really great event, I think we were brave to cover non sustainability topics which have been the subject of some of our previous conferences. Tackling AI head on worked really well and the feedback we have received shows that delegates value our events highly”.
The Midlands Packaging Society would like to thank Loughborough University and especially Dr Nikki Clark for all the help and assistance they have provided in making available the School of Design and Creative Arts for this event.
