ILS Event Highlights HP Indigo Capabilities

PALO ALTO, Calif.—Consumer product packaging brand owners, designers, production specialists and procurement professionals learned about the advantages that digital production solutions offer at the recent Follow Possible Package Printing Forum presented by Hamilton, Ohio-based Innovative Labeling Solutions (ILS) and sponsored by HP.

The April 27 event featured experts from the consumer packaged goods and package converting industries. Attendees had an opportunity to engage with ILS, sponsors, and colleagues to learn about the advances in technology that meet the needs of a modern brand.

“The Follow Possible Package Printing Forum was an excellent opportunity to help educate the brand owner community on the ways our HP Indigo digital production operations can assist brands in creating on-shelf relevance, engagement, and interaction with consumers, as well as improve SKU management and reduce inventory waste and obsolescence,” said Jay Dollries, president of ILS.

Key topics covered at the event included the benefits of multi-SKU and versioned digital production, brand color management, and building brand loyalty. Keynote speaker Jim George, former editor of Shelf Impact! magazine, spoke about packaging industry trends. Plus, former Procter & Gamble executive and current packaging consultant Mike Ferrari presented an in-depth look at today’s innovative brands and how they are connecting the digital realm with physical products.

Additional speakers included Dan Theiss, Procter & Gamble; Jaye Johnson, Artico; Joe Manos, Mindfire Inc.; Susie Stitzel, EskoArtwork; and HP’s Yishai Amir, Larry Brining and Gary Bernier.

A tour of ILS’s digital production floor during the event featured the company’s three HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press production lines printing pressure sensitive labels, shrink sleeves, flexible packaging, and folding carton finishing at full-color speeds up to 98 feet per minute. The tour also featured finishing and prepress solutions from members of the HP Graphics Solutions Partner Program, including the first-ever public display of a Delta Industrial pressure-sensitive label finishing system installed in-line with an HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press. Also shown on the tour were flexible packaging laminations, hot stamping, shrink sleeve seaming, and tactile varnish applications.