Label Summit Latin America program announced

Label Summit Latin America is heading to Colombia for the first time in 2014, with previous editions taking place in Mexico and Brazil. The event is taking place on May 14-15 this year in Medellin. It will return to Mexico in 2015 and 2017, and Brazil in 2016.

Day one of the conference will include a look at local and global industry trends by Don Nolan, president of Avery Dennison Materials Group. Avery Dennison is gold sponsor of Label Summit Latin America 2014. Maria Alexandra Gruesso Sanchez, executive chairman of ANDIGRAF, will then provide analysis of the Andean region label market and be followed by Aldo González, general manager at Acrus-CCL Label, looking at business transformation through mergers and acquisitions.

Presentations in the afternoon of the first day will also look at sustainability best practices, which will be presented by Baumgarten Gráfica managing director Fernando Gabel, as well as pre-press, printing and finishing technologies. Speakers will include: Martin Esteban Fraire Cambiasso, commercial director at Leftech; Hector Buenavista, rotogravure and flexo consumables sales manager at Daetwyler; and Francisco Soto, sales manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at Rotoflex.

A presentation on ‘Short run labels – understanding the business of conventional and digital printing’ will be given by John Vigna, Mark Andy’s sales manager for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

Day one will also feature two panel discussions chaired by Labels & Labeling Latin America editor James Quirk. The first, on digital printing, will look at press selection, integration and the ramifications. Speakers will include: Alexander Mercon, labeling and packaging segment manager for Latin America at HP Indigo; Lucas Calvo, production and pre-sales consultant for Latin America at Xeikon; and Oscar Granados, senior sales development manager for inkjet solutions at EFI Jetrion.

An Andean printer panel discussion will feature speakers from Servibarras in Colombia, Kuresa of Peru, Bolivia’s Flexo Print and Sismode of Ecuador.

Day two features a series of presentations on brand development, product design and positioning, and harnessing new technologies and innovating for the future. Presenters will include Spear’s Latin American business development director Tony Estrada, Design Packaging creative director Evelio Mattos, NeuroMind chief executive officer and scientific director Dr Henry Castillo and Karlville’s slitting division director Uli Jorgens.

A concluding panel discussion aims to provide a snapshot of the latest niche technologies and applications being developed, and will include: Carlos Pescott Jimenez, agent and distribution manager for GEW; John Thome, vice-president for sales and marketing in Latin America, at BST Pro Mark; Guillermo González, national sales manager at Klöckner Pentaplast; Carlos Clement, general manager at Gerlab Chemical Services; Nick Vindel, Latin America sales manager for JM Heaford; and Luca Tubbini, director of sales in Latin America at X-Rite.

An accompanying table-top exhibition will sit alongside the conference program and include a host of industry suppliers, from Alphasonics and Flexo Concepts to Frimpeks and Zeller+Gmelin.

Tasha Ventimiglia, event director for Label Summit Latin America, said: ‘We are extremely excited to be extending Label Summit Latin America into Colombia. Material supplier Arclad estimates the annual Colombian label market consumption to be around 90 million sq m a year and with a population of approximately 47 million, that puts the country’s annual per capita label consumption at 1.91 sq m, a figure not far from the region’s more developed markets such as Brazil.

‘As one of the continent’s fastest growing economies, it will give Colombian printers a valuable opportunity to learn about the wider Latin American market and global industry trends, while discussing the future of label and package printing in Colombia with industry peers.’

View the full Label Summit Latin America 2014 program here, and register to attend here.