FINAT has chosen Rome as the venue for this year’s European Label Forum (ELF). The association’s flagship event will be held on June 3-5, 2020, at the Sheraton Roma Hotel & Conference Center.

A major focus will be on sustainability in response to worldwide developments and the demands on all manufacturers for more environmentally-friendly working processes and products. The leadership culture of the label industry in the face of generation change will be addressed, as well.

The annual ELF offers not only the latest market update and informative presentations, but also a great opportunity for networking. ELF brings together business leaders, managers and young professionals from the whole value chain. Details of the engaging program aimed at providing attendees with the knowledge and tools to maximize the potential of their businesses have now been revealed.

Peer-to-peer sharing of experiences
Following the successful launch last year, the converter-only roundtables will return to offer participants the opportunity to debate the industry’s hot topics. The peer discussion sessions are aimed at small and mid-sized converters, who will convene the day ahead of the main program to talk about the challenges and issues they face. This is a chance for owners and managers of label printing companies to share experiences and together analyse the trends that are affecting them in their daily work.

Disrupting the shopping experience
After the official welcome from Chris Ellison, FINAT president, and Elisabetta Brambilla, president of GIPEA (the Italian self-adhesive label producers’ association), the opening keynote will be given by famous entrepreneur Oscar Farinetti, who will share his road to success with the attendees. He is the creator of Eataly, an Italian food marketplace concept comprising restaurants, cafés and food outlets, where shoppers can browse a wide range of high-end products, drink coffee or even take a cookery lesson. The company made it onto Forbes list of most disruptive brands in 2015 and today has over 40 branches worldwide, while Farinetti himself is a highly regarded trailblazer for his unconventional working methods.

A Europe in turmoil?
Helping the audience understand the dynamics of the current political and economic climate, professor Andrea Boltho, who is Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and director of Oxford Economics, will offer an analysis of the general European economic outlook and drill down into market figures. He will look at the uncertainties caused by trade wars, political turmoil and the new forces of the Eurozone, and how they affect all businesses. This will be complemented later in the day by FINAT’s detailed annual European label market update and the findings from the six-monthly RADAR report.

Business, sustainability and culture
Interactive themed sessions will be offered as three concurrently running tracks in the afternoon on day one. Under the headings Business, Sustainability and Culture, there will be a plethora of presentations (with Q&As) honing in on the topics that are affecting the industry, including Industry 4.0, recycling, intelligent packaging, digital transformation and culture change.

Day two continues with a case study on how to combine fair trade and environmental sustainability, before some of Europe’s leading brand owners sit down for an in-depth panel debate. They will discuss how they as providers of label and packaging solutions can play a role in driving sustainability and look at the demands and opportunities for recycling and the reality of recyclability.

The concluding keynote from motivational speaker and cultural expert Pellegrino Riccardi picks up on the issues of diversity and cultural awareness to help business owners understand the potential and untapped value of their workforce.

As always, there will be social events for the members to complement the learning sessions, including the option to visit the Vatican museum and meet for dinner after the formal closure of the forum.