Diageo, The Lakes Distillery and Glenfiddich to speak at The Drinks Symposium. A brand new show feature at this year’s Packaging Innovations, running alongside Empack and Label&Print, which returns to Birmingham on 25 – 26 February for its tenth edition.

The Drinks Symposium will present case studies from three very different, award-winning, luxury whisky brands. Each brand’s story will demonstrate how original thinking and imaginative packaging design can create a strong brand identity, when either bringing to market a new product, a brand extension, or maintaining an established brand’s unique market position.

The brand new show feature, running in association with TheDrinksReport.com, boasts an expert speaker line up from the alcoholic beverage industry, along with their designers, who will use the Symposium to demonstrate the power of packaging. 

Felicity Murray, Editor of TheDrinksReport.com, said: "The Drinks Symposium is delighted to be part of the UK’s biggest packaging show. We have a particularly strong speaker line-up, spanning three award winning whisky brands, all looking to share their own stories on how they have built a successful brand platform through packaging design and original thinking. It really is not to be missed!”

Paul Currie, Founder and MD, of The Lakes Distillery and Duncan McEwan, Managing Director, at Hedley McEwan will be exploring the whole process from concept to brand design. Sharing their experience in creating the branding for the unique British blended whisky called The One, as well as The Lakes Malt, The Lakes Gin and The Lakes Vodka. They will also talk about the processes put in place to create a new distillery, new concepts and a new brand. 

Currie shares some insight into his upcoming presentation: “Duncan and I are delighted to be able to take part in this year’s Drinks Symposium on behalf of The Lakes Distillery. We believe branding goes beyond simply a logo or graphic element, it’s our opportunity as brand owners to convey our unique and distinctive personality. During our presentation we’ll share our branding journey from an idea through to the creation of The Lakes Distillery and its brands – as whisky distilleries are typically in existence for hundreds of years, this was an almost unique opportunity to start with a blank canvas.”

Revealing the successes of the legendary Scotch whisky Johnnie Walker, will be Giles Calver, Planning Director, at Sedley Place alongside Jeremy Lindley, Global Design Director, for Diageo who will talk about the development and success of the Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky packaging. They will discuss how building desire through design effectiveness made Johnnie Walker’s Blue Label its most prestigious whisky, and one of the most famous international super-premium blend whiskies.

Calver explains why he jumped at the chance to speak at The Drinks Symposium: “Firstly, the Johnnie Walker story is really interesting, so it is special to be able to share it with likeminded people in the industry. Secondly, the show always provides interesting speakers and this year this looks like being especially true, with talks on both a new and established brands. Finally, attending the show is a great way to find out what is happening in the packaging world and to meet others involved in the industry. I’m hoping to come back informed and inspired.”

Gary Westlake, Founder of design agency Purple Creative, along with Sarah Macaulay, Global Marketing Manager, at Glenfiddich will draw on their personal experience to identify the key factors in creating a new visual identity for a long established brand, like Glenfiddich, the world's most awarded single malt whisky.  

Westlake remarks: “Packaging Innovations is the perfect platform to talk to relevant, interested people about a global visual identity project and brand that I’m passionate about” 

Macaulay agrees: "I am very much looking forward to our Glenfiddich talk at The Drinks Symposium. It's a fantastic opportunity to discuss our new visual identity with an expert audience."

In addition to The Drinks Symposium, the show will also be launching The Pharmaceutical Symposium and The Retail Symposium, offering exhibitors and visitors from all spheres of the packaging and print world a unique programme of valuable and insightful content.

There will be a full inspirational learnShops programme provided by world-class experts, with presentations from Nestlé, Sainsbury and Innocent Drinks. The two day show also feature plenty of show floor ‘theatre’ in the form of The BIG Print Debate and the Lions’ Lair.