For the first time since 2019, EskoWorld welcomed attendees to participate in in-depth product demonstrations, educational presentations, networking sessions, and fun in a collaborative atmosphere. Nearly 500 attendees took part in the Esko users conference in Grapevine, TX, USA, from June 7-9, 2022.

The event marked the 31st annual EskoWorld, providing an in-person opportunity for Esko users to partake in roadmap sessions. These sessions featured a wide range of Esko prepress software demonstrations, from Automation Engine and WebCenter to ArtiosCAD and Cape Pack, where users could get hands-on support from the experts. The event also featured a vendor tabletop, with participation from CERM, Dupont, EFI, Epson, Tilia Labs and more.

EskoWorld delved into the latest challenges and hot-button issues affecting all levels of the label and package printing industry, as well. Sustainability, automation, and the latest supply chain challenges were tackled at length, as well as other important topics like promoting diversity and opportunities for women in packaging.

“We hear in our conversations with you – our customers – that your orders are completely full. “You’re working against full capacity all the time,” Jan De Roeck, marketing director at Esko, explained in his opening remarks. “You’re dealing with rising energy costs, and raw material pricing is going through the roof. You’re also dealing with supply chain disruptions and getting the packaging quickly shipped to your customers. This event allows us to go deeper into these issues and explain how our solutions can digitize and automate your workflows to deal with all these challenges. You can learn how to implement these solutions in your business today.”

According to De Roeck, Esko is seeing strong growth and versatility in the label and packaging sector. “Based on the feedback we’re getting, the packaging and label market is going very strong,” he said. “In labels, I feel like the M&A activity is really hot at the moment.

“We were not forced to shut down our businesses during the Covid pandemic, so we’ve been lucky, we’ve been thriving and we’ve been growing our business,” he added. “But we had to adapt and change in that very moment. The future cannot be derived from the past, but one thing I know the future will be disruptive and business leaders will have to adapt to a very different future. We must adapt to the next normal and the next normal after that. We will have to adapt to a very different future time and time again. This is not doom and gloom; it’s a future full of opportunity. That’s what we’re discussing at EskoWorld. We’re your partner in this challenge.”

Esko identified several post-pandemic priorities for the industry. These include developing strategies around environmental sustainability, accelerating the digital transformation journey for your entire business, and continuing in the fight for talent – acquiring, retaining, and developing.

With automation, digitization and connectivity – key themes for Esko’s newest product launches – there exists the possibility further reduce waste in converters’ workflows.

“Investments and finance are hard to get if you don’t have sustainability as part of your story. Money will be hard to get if you don’t have an environmental strategy, and it’s unavoidable. … Sustainability is largely embedded in everything we do. You will see brands taking initiatives in that direction. There’s more environmentally sustainable packaging than ever before. And it’s not just brands. Retailers are very much in the driver’s seat too. Brands are doing this to answer concerns the public has.”

De Roeck noted several vital statistics in this area. From a recent survey, 79% of converters view sustainability as an opportunity. However, only 12% of converters in this European survey have formulated a clear environmentally sustainability strategy. Plus, 61% of Americans say companies are facing more pressure to meet environmental commitments.

In a detailed look at sustainability and the supply chain, Susie Stitzel, Esko solution manager, said 74% of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable packaging. But there are more than 10,000 regulations that can differ by state, city and even municipality.

“We’re not making it easy for consumers to do the right thing even though they really want to,” commented Stitzel. “It’s time to do something about this issue, and what’s going to happen is it’s going to get regulated. An example of that will be reporting Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions.”

There is opportunity here, too. Products marketed as sustainable grew 5.6 times faster than standard products, noted Stitzel. “In 90% of categories, the sustainably-marketed products grew faster than their counterparts, so there’s revenue to be made here,” she added.

The event also allowed Esko the opportunity to showcase its latest products in action. “There is a huge contribution of prepress to your errors,” stated De Roeck. “As a business leader, why would you have all these manual touchpoints that increase the chance of making a mistake? Why would you not automate your workflows? Businesses can add value where it’s necessary. Grow your efficiency and reduce your liability. Especially with market trends, working against full capacity, there’s only one answer: digitize, automate, connect.”

These philosophies have been exemplified in Esko’s newest products. Recently, Esko has launched its latest platemaking solution, the CDI Crystal 4260 XPS, delivering more automation, enhanced quality, increased simplicity and improved reliability to the plate room. The CDI Crystal 4260 XPS can be operated with just one hour of training, with single touch operation using an intuitive screen interface and enables unattended operation. The award-winning Esko XPS Crystal technology optimally combines UV main and back exposure, using LEDs that always emit consistent UV light as opposed to traditional exposure frames, which use lightbulbs with fluctuating output.

Plus, Esko has announced a new softwre release. Esko Release 22.03 includes a host of new features, such as next generation Color Preflight with Automation Engine and ArtPro+, new assembly instructions with ArtiosCAD, reducing assembly time by up to 20%, Native Apple Silicon support for ArtPro+, DeskPack and Studio, an ArtPro+ Digital Edition for digital print workflows, and an improved WebCenter user experience and reporting. All of these were highlighted during the in-depth roadmaps with Esko experts.


New reporting tools in Automation Engine and business analytics in WebCenter help to turn that data into useful business insights that can help shape a business by identifying and untapping new efficiencies and eradicating further waste. “New additions to WebCenter, our packaging management solution, remove barriers and improve the user experience by increasing ease of use, while advanced reporting features and dynamic 3D viewing serve to better equip teams to meet today’s challenges,” says de Roeck.

“Our close relationship with customers and partners informs how we identify and respond to specific market trends,” he says. “With color accuracy and consistency being key concerns for brands – and therefore to our customers – the ability to deliver accurate color, regardless of run length or substrate, is of paramount importance to today’s packaging converters. That’s why we have introduced our next generation Color Preflight in ArtPro+ and Automation Engine.