Pack Expo Celebrates 50th Anniversary

ARLINGTON, Va.—The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI) announced today that PACK EXPO will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2006. Originating in October 1956, PACK EXPO has evolved into the preeminent industry event drawing an international audience of 50,000 packaging professionals to review a diverse range of advanced, high performance materials and equipment.

"The 50th anniversary of PACK EXPO is a great milestone," says Charles D. Yuska, president of PMMI, sponsor and producer of the PACK EXPO shows. "The show's longevity can be attributed to its consistent future focus. The industry knows PACK EXPO is a show that highlights innovation across all aspects of packaging. The fifty years of service to the industry is but a prologue to its future." First held in October 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio, the inaugural PACK EXPO featured 136 exhibitors occupying 43,116 square feet of floor space. Five thousand visitors attended the event. In contrast, PACK EXPO International 2006, being held October 29 51; November 2 at Chicago's McCormick Place, will feature more than 1,600 exhibitors and cover over 1.2 million square feet of exhibit space. More than 50,000 attendees are expected, including over 6,000 international visitors from more than 75 countries.

"When PACK EXPO first opened its doors in 1956, glass was still the dominant primary container packaging material for food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and toiletries and household chemicals," says Ben Miyares, vice president of Industry Relations for PMMI. "Beer and soft drinks were packed in three-piece tinplate cans and packaging machinery was largely dedicated to running (coding, filling, labeling, capping, case packing) containers that were produced at distant locations. The easy-opening can had not yet been invented and the concept of forming, filling and sealing packages in house was still a pretty novel idea."

That was the world into which PACK EXPO was born. So what will the next 50 years bring? Continued advances in automating not only the coding, filling, labeling, closing and case packing of packages, but the actual production of packages at the point of filling.