The event will now be held on 8 & 9 December 2020 at Olympia London

London – Easyfairs has today announced that its Packaging Innovations & Luxury Packaging London, which was due to take place on 23 & 24 September at Olympia London, has been moved to 8 & 9 December, again at Olympia, and reaffirms its commitment to ensuring the industry has this valuable opportunity to gather and reignite business opportunities as the world emerges from the Coronavirus pandemic.

Alongside, it has also launched a series of webinars that provide relevant content and tackle discussions that are vitally relevant to the packaging community at the current time, all under its Packaging Innovations, Empack, Luxury Packaging, ADF, PCD and PLD brands. Entitled ‘Innovation Talks’, they mix formats of presentations and panel discussions on topics of the moment and are free to join.

Renan Joel, Divisional Director for Easyfairs UK & Global’s packaging events, explains regarding the postponement: “The international outbreak and spread of COVID-19 has had a huge impact on everyone’s lives, and specifically in the exhibitions industry on the ability to bring people together and run live events. Whilst we have worked hard on health and safety measures to ensure that we could be very positive about the running of a safe and successful event in September, the two-week quarantine period for anyone arriving in the UK that was recently enforced as part of the UK Government Action Plan to tackle the Coronavirus outbreak, followed by last week’s announcement from the Prime Minister that events are only able to run as from 1 October 2020, has unfortunately put us in the Force Majeure position of having to move the show.

“Being a truly international show, Packaging Innovations & Luxury Packaging receives 43.3% of its exhibitors from 17 different countries outside the United Kingdom; these current travel regulations make it impossible to run such an international exhibition in September. In addition, the government announcement on Friday opening up events to run from 1 October confirms that we can safely and successfully run the event in December.

“Having already spoken to many in our community, we have been overwhelmed by the positivity and enthusiasm with which the move has been received and the support that the packaging industry has shown for our events generally. It is very clear that they will play a crucial role in the rebuilding of many sales pipelines in sectors that have suffered, and are vitally placed to bring the industry back together after a long period of distancing – social and physical.”

Easyfairs has over the last months been closely following and monitoring the evolution of the situation, specifically taking into account all advice and recommendations from the World Health Organisation as well as from local governments. As such it has been working hard on a comprehensive series of health and safety measures to ensure the safe running of its business to business events programme in the autumn, to allow for social distancing and the highest sanitary levels.

Joel continues: “We are looking forward to running an event in December that adheres to the highest level of sanitary and health standards, and will share more details in due course regarding the measures we will be putting in place to do so. We know that the packaging community will have absolute confidence in attending the event with their safety and health being top priority.”

As the focus in the meantime is on its growing digital presence, the Innovation Talks webinars are providing a valuable forum for discussion and opportunity to learn from industry experts. Talks have already taken place on the following topics, for which recordings of the sessions can be found on the Packaging Innovations London website:

• DTC, sustainability, self-expression: the beautiful new face of FMCG design; presented by Nick Vaus, Partner & Creative Director of London-based brand agency Free The Birds
• Connected packaging: how brands can activate their most powerful owned-media asset; presented by Rob Hollands, Managing Director of Sharpend
• Shaping luxury brand stories through packaging design; presented by Sébastien Ehret, CEO of Servaire & Co
• What AR and the mobile first world mean for your packaging; presented by Martin Stahel, Sales Director for Zappar
• The rise of refillable and reusable packaging solutions; presented by Paul Jenkins, Managing Director of The PackHub

With plans to roll out many more over the coming weeks and months, Joel explains: “The events industry is in a time of change. As many events have been affected by the virus, the world has turned for the time being to digital channels; and while digital can never replace the experience and benefits of meeting and doing business, we are really starting to appreciate the value it can bring to enhance the live event experience and provide added value to our community year-round. Therefore you can expect to see many more great opportunities to learn together and keep the conversation going throughout the year as we prepare for the upcoming December London and Spring Birmingham shows. I invite anyone to get in touch if they have any ideas or would like to get involved!”

Joel concludes: “During this difficult and unprecedented time, I’d like to thank the packaging community for its unwavering support and understanding; and wish to express our ongoing commitment to the future of the industry. We strongly believe that Packaging Innovations & Luxury Packaging London plays a vital role in the economy recovery and we look forward to supporting you and working together to steer the industry out of the crisis and to a strong future.”

For further information about exhibiting or visiting the events, please visit www.packaging-london.com or call +44 (0)20 3196 4429.