2024 TLMI Converter Meeting Takes Off with Comprehensive Educational Program

On a dark Sunday night on the Atlantic coast, label printers and their partner-suppliers gathered on Rainbow Island, where, despite the fog, the skies on March 3, 2024, were clear, and the stars were bright. And like the four astronauts on NASA’s Crew-8 mission who would take off on the SpaceX Falcon 9 at 10:53 p.m., the TLMI members on Rainbow Island might be venturing into the unknown, but their immediate journey was clear — to leverage the power of in-person events to elevate their businesses, secure their legacies, and make the world a better place for their families, their employees, their customers, and their peers.

A journey that began and will finish at The Cloister in Sea Island, Georgia, when the annual TLMI Converter Meeting closes Tuesday evening with the Eugene Singer Awards dinner. Between the networking and the celebration was a dynamic educational program kicked off by TLMI chairman and president of Flexo-Graphics Tim McDonough with a strike of the gavel. Here are some of the highlights.
[Note: This article is being updated live as the event progresses.]

TLMI president Linnea Keen provided an association update. Her update started with a reminder of the association’s value to its members. “What we’re trying to deliver every day is our values — community, insights, and advocacy,” she said. “An event embodies all of that.”

Keen also reminded the audience that TLMI’s scholarship program extends beyond the more than $30,000 awarded to college-age students pursuing their careers. “Also, there’s member-only scholarships,” she said. The association awarded five of these member-only scholarships for continuing education and development.

“We also have a career-growth training grant,” Keen said, which supports TLMI members who want to send a group of employees for outside training.

Corey Reardon, president and CEO at AWA Alexander Watson Associates, followed with a material outlook for 2024. Reardon started by hinting at a broader point of view growing among package converting market analysts. “I’m going to share with you today, a narrower view of the labeling or product decoration market in terms of labeling formats that are separately converted, printed, and applied to a container — not directly printed such as pouches, sachets, or cardboard containers that can perform the same basic duties as rigid containers with labels,” he said. “In actuality, we should be looking at the labeling market in a more broader context — around the packaging market — because there are packaging formats, particularly flexible and cardboard packaging that are substituting rigid containers that would have a label affixed to it but are direct printed.”

Make no mistake, though: Reardon’s data was comprehensive as it looked at both global and North American data, with Reardon identifying the connections between the global and local markets. “We’ve learned particularly over the last few years that regardless of how small or big you are, regardless of whether you’re a multinational with facilities and operations all around the world [or not], the events that happen halfway around the world in other parts of the global have an impact on your business — even locally in Wisconsin, California, or Michigan.”

The researchers sized up total label production to around 72 billion square meters globally with 45% of that production in the Asia-Pacific region today. “This has grown significantly over the last five or 10 years,” Reardon explained. Five years ago, that production was divided more even into approximate thirds from Asia, North America, and Europe. This shift, Reardon explained, impacts supply sources for all the markets.

The overall message was positive, though. “Stock levels are back to a normalized level [and will continue] going into 2024,” he shared. “The data illustrates this, and certainly discussions I’ve had over the last few weeks with a broad base of materials suppliers, converters, and even brand owners across the value chain. There’s a consensus that the destocking phenomenon that plagued us through 2023 is behind us.
“That doesn’t mean that we’re not going to see supply chain disruptions moving forward,” Reardon warned. “We have a war in the Middle East that is making the Suez Canal a problematic area for transportation.”

A perennial favorite, Claudia St. John of the recently rebranded The Workplace Advisors, then presented findings from the TLMI Compensation and Benefits Survey, in addition to a presentation on workplace trends. The survey of 68 companies included businesses from those less than $5 million to greater than $50 million. St. John noted that, in contrast to the technology industry, label converters are not reporting plans to reduce the number of employees.

Adam Peek, senior vice president of sales at Meyers and packaging industry and social media expert, then offered hard-won insights in his presentation, “Don’t Turn Your Back to the Future: How Sustainability, Social Media, and Innovation are Impacting the Industry.” Interestingly, Peek noted that the innovation area was where converters and printers should focus their attention, especially blockchain, AI, and robotics.

A panel discussion led by Andrea Crane of Crane Talent Group explored the topic of succession planning with a focus on alternatives to selling your business to private equity.

TLMI Committee Co-Chairs hosted a group breakfast starting at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, March 5. The co-chairs continued to man the tables throughout the day to faciliate open conversation with all TLMI members whether they are active members of the individual committees or not.

The main-stage educational content started quickly at 8 a.m. with a Regulatory Affairs Committee Update, including a PFAS and DT Task Force update, from Bryan Vickers, partner at PACE, a bipartisan government relations consulting firm that works with TLMI members. To learn more about TLMI’s regulatory work, check out the interview Packaging Impressions did with Vickers at https://www.packagingimpressions.com/video/single/how-associations-advocate-for-printers-on-legislative-issues

Vickers discussed the attractiveness of extended producer legislation for governments that are looking to fund government waste programs, highlighting Maine’s recent regulatory text on how producers will be charged for detrimental packaging materials into the state.

He noted that the regulatory process is often focused on categorizing packaging materials based on their compositions, with brands tasked to provide information on the materials used in their packaged products.

The time to act is now, Vickers emphasized, as deadlines such as the upcoming deadline for companies to comply with Rhode island’s legislation restricting PFOS in packaging is looming.

Beyond sustainability concerns, Vickers noted, many TLMI members are soon to be impacted by tax legislation changes affecting S corporations and smaller businesses. He encouraged members to keep an eye on the potential expiration of tax cuts in 2025 and keep an eye on TLMI’s online community about these changes.

Father-son multi-generational team David and Jonah Stillman of Gen Guru, a boutique management consulting firm that provides insights on how best to connect with Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, delivered a thought-provoking exploration of generations in the workplace.

Father-son multi-generational team David and Jonah Stillman of Gen Guru, a boutique management consulting firm that provides insights on how best to connect with Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, delivered a thought-provoking exploration on generations in the workplace that explored how to better understand Gen Z team members and customers.

Their theory behind generational differences, David explained, applies to everyone alive today, whether they belong to the Silent Generation, which the Stillmans renamed the “Traditionalists,” to Gen Z. “We go through the same life stages,” the Gen Xer said. How each generation goes through these transformative life stages gives each group a distinct set of lenses with which to view the world.

David gave the example of how the different generations viewed space exploration as an example. For the Baby Boomers, space travel brought forth memories of the race to the moon and it represented excellence in institutional innovation. “When we would talk about the moon landing, a lot of the Baby Boomers would express what an exciting time it was, and they would talk about truly winning the race to space and how NASA — their government institution was accomplishing great things. For members of my generation, the Gen Xers in the room, what was your early memory of exploration? Challenger, right? I remember being in 11th grade, and we spent the entire studying the Challenger project. On launch day, we had party hats on, and we had a cake. And we all know what happened. And I can tell you the conversations that ensued afterwards were not about winning any races to space. It was really more questioning why are we even going into space? Why are we spending this money when government institutions are cutting corners left and right? I truly was anything but exciting. … Johan and I were recent in Nashville doing a focus group with a bunch Gen Zers and the topic of space exploration came up. Government institutions were not even mentioned. They were talking about Richard, Elon Musk, or Jeff Bezos.”

When you look at the economic landscape for the millennial generation and Gen Z, David explains, you see that they grew up very differently. “If we think about millennials during their formative years, the economy was doing some great things.” The 2008 recession, he explained, made the world a much scarier place for Gen Z who saw their “Gen X parents’ net worth fall by 45% during that recession. Then they get the COVID pandemic, which again are some scary economic times.” Furthermore, David ages the pandemic impacted Gen Z directly. “Sixty percent of Gen Z said the pandemic directly impacted their own source of income,” he added.

David son’s Jonah remarked, “At a very young age, Gen Z has been forced into almost survival mode, where we’re looking for ways to get ahead in life and find competitive advantages from our peers — our co-workers.” While Gen Z is more focused and determined in their career choices than the previous generation, Gen Z isn’t content to take the same path to success as their Gen X parents who suffered despite their strong work ethic.

Instead, Gen Z is redefining the path to career success, with 75% believing there are alternative ways to get a good education beyond college. “This does not mean that 75% of Gen Z is skipping college,” Jonah explained. “What this means is that a large percentage of this generation is aware that college is not the only option.”

David explored the contributing factors to Gen Z’s view towards college. One is the influence of their Gen X parents, who see millennials sitting on mounds and mounds of college debt.” These parents are encouraging their children to consider whether that debt is worth the rewards and how they would pay off college debt and begin to save for the future. “On top of that, Johan and I travel the world and we meet with companies. Get this, companies all over the world are dropping their requirements for four-year degrees. Fifty-one percent of companies might remove a bachelor’s degree from job requirements in 2024. The lesson that parents who work for these organizations are receiving is maybe a college degree for your career isn’t critical.”

Previously being encouraged to attend a trade school meant that you were being sidelined, David explained. Now, trade schools are viewed by many parents as a strategic move that lets their child enter the job market in as little as two years, have barely any debt, and have gainful employment. For the converters in the room, David emphasized, you need to partner with as many of those trade schools as possible and make sure they see your support, so you get on their radar as a source of great opportunities for employment.