Packaging
Paris welcomes FINAT for its 50th
Friday 15. February 2008 - There could not be a more appropriate place than Paris to hold this years Annual Conference. It was here - 50 years ago - that a small meeting was held which gave birth to FINAT, now one of the oldest trade associations in the world.
Today, FINAT takes great pride in representing many of the worlds self-adhesive label companies. Fifty years ago, who would have believed that FINAT would grow into a league of nations spanning the world!
This years Congress has as its theme a simple slogan – Rendezvous with the Future. It will take a close look at the future of decoration technologies and pressure sensitive labelling. We will also hear a brand owners perspective of the future. But that is not all. Without a past, none of us would have a future so the conference will also be examining where we have come from and where we are today.
Delegates will be hearing about the history of FINAT and packaging, and about value innovation and where our future lies. They will hear the associations vision about the days ahead and will obtain an outlook into the hosting country state of the industry in the context of European label market developments, which in turn will be put into the macro economic perspective.
FINAT and its co-host UNFEA, the French national label association, have secured a range of first class speakers including label industry watchers Mike Fairley (Labels and Labelling) and Corey Reardon (AWA Alexander Watson), packaging specialists Robert Opie (Museum of Packaging) and Frans Boumans (ING Bank) and association leaders Jan Frederik Vink (President FINAT), Dominique Durant des Aulnois (President UNFEA) and Jules Lejeune (MD FINAT). These experts, well known to the label industry will be complemented by external keynote speakers Marc Touati (ACDEFI), Ben Bensaou (INSEAD) and mounteneer Cathy oDowd.
As this special anniversary edition of the annual label industry intends to link the past with the future, the programme will feature as its moderator innovation specialist Hans van Grieken (Capgemini), whilst former FINAT Secretary-General and the associations historian Mans Lejeune will introduce the FINAT 50th Anniversary Book commemorating the occasion.