Material ConneXion was a returning sponsor of Luxe Pack New York, featuring a booth displaying the latest material innovation, as well as taking part in one of the most popular panels.

In its 15th iteration, Luxe Pack New York maintained its preeminence as the major luxury packaging event in the US, hosting an international lineup of over 200 exhibitors from 18 countries at Pier 92 on the Hudson River in Manhattan.

The event also offered 10 seminars, and more than 30 speakers, with a range of packaging, design, marketing, and innovation experts sharing their cross-industry insights.

This year’s most impressive packaging product developments and solutions were displayed on an Innovation Wall.

Material ConneXion was a returning sponsor of Luxe Pack NY, featuring a booth displaying the latest material innovation, as well as taking part in one of the most popular panels.

“Luxury Packaging With A Conscience: The Ingredients For Success” featured Material ConneXion’s Executive Vice President, Dr. Andrew Dent, as part of a panel moderated by Jamie Matusow, Editor-in-Chief of Beauty Packaging. Other panelists included Inger Heinke, Business Director of Cartonboard, Billerrudkorsnas; James Neri, VP of Global Package Development at Estee Lauder and Sheri Koetting, co-founder and Chief Strategist of MSLK.The panelists discussed the environmentally responsible merits of the products they buy and the high demand for sustainable packaging across all industries, and how they are reacting to this consumer behavior shift, as well as sharing their thoughts on the environment and corporate social responsibility.

LuxePack also gave two “In Green” awards: The paper company Scheufelen won the Best in Green Product Green Award with their “Promobox “Dein Kräutergarten” (“Your herb garden”)” product, and James Cropper won the Green Award for Initiatives for their Solar PV Array Installation.

Material ConneXion Takeaways

• Innovations were focused mostly on incremental improvements to existing technologies
• An awareness of the need for sustainability is present, but limited, because of the constant demand for new and eye-catching design and packaging
• This means that Luxury Packaging still focuses on “more,” rather than better, packaging…to its own detriment
• We didn’t hear a lot of discussion of the “Amazon effect” of fewer packaging needs due to more deliveries

Notable Trends

• Unbreakable glass bottles (VERESCENCE)
• Printing ANYWHERE on a molded tube (House of Teijin/Teijin Chemical)
• Ultraclear 100% PCR glass (VERESCENCE)
• NFC everything: no app needed to connect (Seram International)
• World’s first “direct to shape” digital printing technology (Velox)