Label Summit Latin America reports success

One more successful summit from the Labelexpo Global Series took place in Mexico City on 15-16 April. Label Summit Latin America attracted 653 attendees from Mexico and the surrounding region.

The Summit's conference had two busy days with a variety of presentations by both local and international experts. The subjects discussed included digital printing technologies, innovations in UV flexo, developments in film, end users requirements, security and brand protection issues and sustainability.

John Wurzburger, vice president and general manager of Fasson Roll North America, delivered a keynote speech offering delegates an overview of the current state of the Latin American label market. Panel discussions had a strong focus on technological trends and sustainability issues currently concerning the label industry. Marty Vavra, label product manager of Wal-Mart, and Luis Maria Garcia, president of Multilabel, held an engaging panel discussion titled 'Making label printing leaner, greener and more profitable'. The session highlighted such issues as environmental compliance of label companies to the demands set by brand owners. They also posed the question of how labeling businesses could ensure to stay profitable and successful with the challenges imposed by brands and legislation.

Josep M. Soler, managing director corporate strategy of Rotatek, delivered speech about the variety of different printing systems in the label industry. He provided an evaluation of the current manufacturing and printing methods, highlighted the advantages of different printing processes and gave his estimates of the future advancement of printing technologies.

Alejandro Gmez, design and media executive of Avery Dennison Mxico, said: ‘For every industry today, it is important to have a forum where people can examine and share new developments and trends. Finding the ideal audience and sharing the experience becomes increasingly a necessary activity for us, and in the past two years Avery Dennison has found that Label Summit Latin America is such a forum.’

The Summit's success showed in the number of re-bookings for the next Label Summit Latin America 2009, while 50 percent of space is already re-booked for the show in 2010.

Roger Pellow, Labelexpo managing director, announced a change to the format of the conference when the event returns to Brazil next year: ‘Starting with our Brazil Summit in 2009 the conference format will change to comprise a series of keynotes on vital subjects of interest to the industry and then there will be break-out sessions that will give visitors the opportunity to gain more knowledge on specialized subjects. This new format will increase the value to the visiting delegates.’

Label Summit Latin America 2009 will take place in So Paulo and return to Mexico in 2010.