On the heels of a successful drupa, Esko brought its innovations to its North American customers during the EskoWorld 2016 User Conference held June 21-23 at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, Florida. The event, adopting the drupa theme of “Packaging Simplified” was visited by more than 600 people, of which 425 were users of Esko solutions representing leading brands, designers, prepress, trade shops and converters. Nearly 175 were first-time attendees. Over 75 educational sessions covered flexo platemaking, digital cutting and creasing, packaging prepress, structural design, 3D visualization and brand management. The agenda was designed to enhance users’ knowledge about the Esko solutions they currently operate, and to expand their understanding about the industry’s latest trends. Opening remarks to the audience from Udo Panenka, Esko President, focused on the challenges those in the packaging supply chain may face – faster time to market, a need for improved operational efficiency, global production and changing brand requirements, among many others. “This year, we made a very concerted effort to bring the innovations introduced at drupa in Düsseldorf to our U.S. and Canada user base. We also demonstrated that our solutions integrate very well with solutions from other Danaher partners, such as X-Rite Pantone and subsidiaries Enfocus and MediaBeacon,” explained Panenka. “Together, our solutions bring synergetic value that cannot be found with any other player in the industry. We’re sure that attendees returned to their offices with lots of ideas of how to optimize their processes.”
A full agenda of Esko innovations
The EskoWorld agenda mirrored much of the six Inspiration Zones that drupa visitors walked through as steps of a typical packaging production workflow. They included: Brands, Specification & Briefing; Design; Artwork & Repro; Flexo Platemaking; Printing & Ink Management; and Finishing. There was a flexo platemaking demo room, which included a new integrated flexo imaging and exposing solution – the CDI Crystal 5080 XPS. The room, dedicated to Kongsberg digital cutting solutions, demonstrated a tangible throughput increase by integrating cutting tables with workflow software for production control. The Software Interaction room introduced visitors to the Esko Software Platform – the 2016 release of the well-known portfolio of integrated software solutions for design, prepress, workflow automation, colour management and supply chain collaboration. EskoWorld also highlighted innovative and popular production methods for designers, brands and converters.
An interactive Store Visualizer display was continuously running in the hallway, demonstrating a complete virtual mall with tens of thousands of virtual products. In addition to the presentation and training sessions, attendees booked one-on-one meetings with Esko product managers, inquired about the latest product releases from business partners, visited open labs to speak with solution experts, and interacted with peers within the industry. A number of Esko partners demonstrated complementary solutions. These included Chili Publish, DuPont Advanced Printing, EFI, Epson, GlobalVision, MacDermid Graphics Solutions, PrintNow, Enfocus, MediaBank and X-Rite and its Pantone subsidiary.
Packaging Simplified is the theme as EskoWorld focuses on its drupa innovations
