Smart Label Summit Americas attracts delegations from four continents

Smart Label Summit Americas, which took place on 27-28 June in Miami, was a tremendous success with 180 visitors attending from the United States, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe.

The event provided a unique international platform to explore the infinite possibilities of the complete smart label technology solution. High-profile speakers from leading end-user organizations in the pharmaceutical and retail sectors as well as RFID and smart label experts, delivered presentations to international delegates in Miami. Senior-level delegates from major brands including PepsiCo, Bacardi and Kimberley Clark all attended the two-day conference. Managers from some of the major global printers, including Fort Dearborn and CCL were also present as well as representatives from leading American printers such as George Schmitt & Co and Hub Labels Inc.

Smart Label Summit Americas provided a focal point for delegates to learn about the latest developments in smart intelligent and smart RFID technologies and how they can benefit from using these in their label businesses. The keynote speaker, Mike Meranda, president of EPCglobal US, highlighted the necessity and importance of creating global standards for RFID.

Aaron Graham, VP and chief security officer, Purdue Pharma, spoke about the vast potential for RFID technology to prevent counterfeit pharmaceuticals from entering the supply chain and flooding into local pharmacies around the world. The current value of counterfeit pharmaceutical products in the market is $39 billion but Graham warns this is set to increase to $75 billion in 2010. The label industry has a huge role to play in shaping the future of the pharmaceutical industry and ultimately could help to save lives around the world.

There was a strong presence of top global retailers speaking at the conference with leading experts from Wal-Mart, Beaver Street Fisheries and J.Crew delivering presentations. Simon Langford, director of RFID and Transportation Systems for Wal-Mart, detailed how a University of Arkansas research project showed a 16 per cent reduction in out-of-stocks in RFID-enabled stores and how these stores were 63 per cent more effective in re-stocking tagged items. Neco Can, former chief information officer at J. Crew, focused on bringing greater customer satisfaction through the use of RFID. Powerful case studies showed how this technology can improve consumers’ shopping experience.

A tabletop exhibition running alongside the conference was packed full of exhibitors including: UPM Raflactac; Mark Andy; Timestrip; Domino Printing Sciences; Atlantic Zeiser; bielomatik; Brooks Automation; Emerson Cuming; Innovative Equipment; Meco; Muehlbauer; Spraylat; and Xink.

Roger Pellow, Labelexpo managing director, said: ‘We’re very pleased with the outcome of Smart Label Summit Americas. There was a great deal of networking, with delegates exploring opportunities in setting up strong new business partnerships. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our prestigious speakers in helping delegates to really understand the capabilities of these technologies and how they can be of real added-value to improving product quality in this ever-changing marketplace. This Summit brought in converters from across the Americas and beyond, who are or will be early adopters of smart/RFID technology. We expect the number of label printers/converters involved in this area to increase over the next few years and there will be a strong potential for significant revenue growth.’