Page 36 - Packaging News Magazine May-June 2019

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AUSPACK REVIEW
AUSPACK 2019 breaks every
AUSPACK 2019 wrapped up in Melbourne as a smashing success, breaking records for number of visitors, biggest floor space, and most adjacent events, as well as attracting an influx of guests from around the world.
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THE exhibition brought in almost 8000 trade visitors, an increase of 25 per cent compared with the previous largest show. According to Mark Dingley, chairman of AUSPACK owner the Austra-
lian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association (APPMA), the entire Packaging and Processing Week was “a fantastic success”.
“It was excellent to hear feed- back about the vibrancy on the show floor, both on the stands and in the aisles.
“This year we had the largest floor space we’ve ever had – it was close on twenty thousand square metres. Not only did floor space sell out nearly six months before the event, but we attracted a hundred and five international exhibitors, which is the most ever, and a fifteen per cent increase compared with the previ- ous edition,” he said.
FOCUS ON THE FUTURE
New technologies abounded on the exhibition floor, with Industry 4.0 a particular focus – the show was the debut appearance of industry group
Open IIoT, made up of SMC Corpo- ration, Beckhoff Automation, NORD Drivesystems, Balluff and ZI-Argus, who united to educate in- dustry on the benefits and imple- mentation of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology.
According to the Open IIoT group, AUSPACK provided an excellent op- portunity to launch the initiative, which attracted plenty of visitors over the four days.
“We were excited to use AUSPACK as the launch platform for our new initiative, which promotes the real- world implementation of Industry 4.0. We chose AUSPACK because of the quality audience it is known for – smart buyers who are key in the decision-making process within their business. As Industry 4.0 is a relatively new and complex topic, we felt that choosing the right audience to get our message across was key.
“The show is really well organ- ised. As newcomers, it was impor- tant for us to have confidence that our investment would be valued, and, in turn, carry value for us. We saw that at AUSPACK. We had a large amount of interest in our
“It was excellent
to hear feedback about the vibrancy on the show floor, both on the stands and in the aisles.” – Mark Dingley, APPMA
project and, with the help of the APPMA, our new initiative is now firmly on the manufacturing map,” the group said.
NOT JUST AN EXHIBITION
Beyond the show floor, AUSPACK 2019 also incorporated events such as the Business and Industry Confer- ence, which according to Dingley, attracted more than 40 speakers who presented to a sold-out crowd of 300 people (see our story on page 10).
“This is a monumental achieve- ment for an inaugural conference and truly speaks of how relevant the