Sydney today became the nerve centre of the global packaging industry when the board of the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) met on the sidelines of the AUSPACK PLUS 2013 show for its first full meeting of 2013.
Following the strong showing of Australian pack design in this year’s WPO WorldStar Awards, it was decided to host this year’s event, and the WorldStar Awards ceremony, in Sydney during AUSPACK PLUS week.
The WPO board meeting was organised by the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP), a very active WPO member, and was added as part of the program of AUSPACK PLUS to mark the show’s status as the major packaging expo in the region.
Under consideration at today’s board meeting was the launch of the new WPO website: www.worldpackaging.org.
The president of the WPO, Thomas Schneider, said the site was designed to help members, packaging companies and organisations across the world to collaborate and keep in touch with important news and trends.
"The new website is modern and easy to navigate. The purpose is to offer our members and the world packaging community rich content and useful information that can be used as a guideline for daily activities and as an aid in developing relationships with other packaging professionals around the world,” Schneider said.
The website also includes a complete list of trade shows and packaging publications around the world, as well as books and literature related to the industry.
The WPO will also discuss over the next few days parameters for research that will be conducted in order to map the statistics of the world packaging industry.
Other major subjects on the agenda included new activities related to educational programs as well as marketing and communications.
Some 25 representatives from such countries as Australia, the USA, Brazil, China, Korea, Nigeria, Norway, South Africa and Turkey attended the Sydney meeting today.
The board meeting will also continue over the next two days.
Schneider will also be one of the speakers in the AIP Technical Forum on Thursday.
Tomorrow evening, after AUSPACK PLUS closes for the day, the 2013 WorldStar Award ceremony will be held, with 159 winners receiving trophies.
The 2013 edition of the awards had a total of 316 entries from 33 different countries.
