Building on its theme covering the evolution of pouches, the 2019 Global Pouch Forum features presentations focused on innovation, sustainability and developing markets.

The 23rd Global Pouch Forum will be held June 11-13, 2019, at Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, Ill. After several successful years in Miami, Fla., the move to the Chicago area, which represents the heartland of U.S. packaging operations, seemed obvious.

Leading off the conference as keynote speakers will be Ken McGuire, senior research fellow at Procter & Gamble, and Cedric D’Souza, chief technical officer of Innventure. Together they will detail the development of the award-winning AeroFlexx liquid dispensing pouch, used by Procter & Gamble for its Dawn dishwashing detergent. The pouch was developed by the P&G research and development team and is being commercialized for use outside of P&G by Innventure.

New Benefits for the Pouch

In a market segment dominated by rigid plastic bottles, the pouch overcomes many of the perceived drawbacks of flexible packaging, including messy dispensing, cheap appearance and expensive converting. It also offers significant sustainability and cost advantages. Flexible packaging uses less than 50 percent of the material than most rigid bottles.

McGuire points out that that pouches are ideal for use in e-commerce and less likely to suffer damage in shipping. In testing within the P&G distribution system, the pouches were able to deform and absorb energy in ways a rigid package cannot.

Presentations from the Flexible Packaging Association and Euromonitor will update attendees on the state of the flexible packaging industry and the latest trends in consumer preferences.

The conference also will emphasize how CPGs can advance their packaging innovation processes with a presentation by Christina Cvetan, a founding partner of Ahead of the Curve Group and a former leader of Unilever’s global packaging R&D team. Following will be innovation panels that include a converting team representing TAPPI, and a panel from the Contract Packaging Association discussing how co-packers can contribute to the innovation process.

Circular Economy Prospects

Roger Zellner, formerly the R&D packaging sustainability director for Kraft Foods and Mondelēz, will moderate a panel that explores whether the industry will be able to reach its aggressive goals for creating a closed-loop recycling system for flexible packaging. This panel features speakers representing all sides of the issue, from resin manufacturer to operators of municipal recycling facilities. 

Recyclability is one of the major challenges for laminated pouches using multiple resins. A team representing the Kashi Bear Naked brand, along with Berry Global and Dow Chemical, will explain how the company introduced a recyclable pouch that is designed specifically to fit the circular economy.

Thousands of packaging professionals have relied on this event to stay current on developments in the industry. Last year’s conference saw more than 600 attendees and 80-plus exhibitors. For the agenda and to register, visit globalpouchforum.com.