AUSPACK 2019 stand application process

After a successful 2017 event, AUSPACK has announced it has opened a stand application process in preparation for its 2019 event. Held in the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on 26–29 March 2019, it is the Southern Hemisphere’s leading processing and packaging trade event.

It will feature trends in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical processing, and packaging industries and businesses across processing technologies, sustainable packaging, factories of the future and artificial intelligence are encouraged to apply for a stand.

The Processing Day and the Packaging & Processing Innovation & Design (PIDA) Awards that featured in the 2017 event will be returning in 2019. The four-day event, held biannually, will also include the National Technical Forums, staged in partnership with the AIP, which will cover a range of topics aimed at educating attendees.

“Processing Day, held as part of the growing Packaging & Processing Week, and the new awards were excellent inclusions and added a lot of value for visitors. We developed Processing Day to enhance the opportunities for processing companies to meet other key players and it was a very useful business tool, while the well-received PIDA Awards — the only awards program of their type in Australasia — were an excellent way to recognise those making a significant difference in packaging and processing,” said Mark Dingley, chairman of the Australian Packaging & Processing Machinery Association (APPMA), which owns AUSPACK.

Ali Mead, event director with Exhibition and Trade Fairs (ETF), the organisers of AUSPACK, said they have introduced a new, hierarchical format for exhibitor applications. With four stages to the application process, APPMA members and previous Melbourne exhibitors will have priority.

The four stages of the 2019 application are:

• Phase 1: 24 October–6 November 2017: open to APPMA members who have previously exhibited in Melbourne in 2015.
• Phase 2: 7 November–4 December: open to all APPMA members.
• Phase 3: 5–18 December: open to all previous Melbourne (AUSPACK 2015) exhibitors, with the opportunity to secure their previous space or similar if unavailable.
• Phase 4: 30th January 2018 to the 2019 event until sold out: open to all potential exhibitors on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mead suggested the 2017 event was “record-breaking” and “memorable,” and the company plans to build on these successes.

“AUSPACK 2019 is on target to be even more exciting and rewarding for the businesses who exhibit and attending visitors.”