The Future of Packaging 2010-2020: FAQ

Below is a short list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) that will help you better understand this exciting program:

Q: Who participates in a program like this?

A:  Fortune 100/500 companies across the value chain – leaders in all industries (raw material suppliers, converters, brand owners, retailers). This program provides great pre-competitive collaboration insights for all participants by better understanding how other parts of the value chain engage emerging issues

A: Small and medium sized companies that recognize the importance and value of packaging and are looking to develop growth strategies with packaging.

Q: What approach / methodology will be used?

A: Proven past PTIS and Leading Futurists work -using processes and tools including subject matter experts. Tools also include critical insight downloads with participants, scenarios, cross impact analysis, Well curve analysis, etc. They deliver on the point results that can be applied to actionable packaging outcomes.

Q: My company has been a sponsor in the past. What will be different about this session than what we have seen in past sessions?

A: Past participants recognize that projecting more than three years out is a very tricky task, as the global recession has taught us.  While PTIS and Leading Futurists will be utilizing many of the same techniques and basic structures of past programs, this program will be honed to reflect the changes to the global economy in the past three years to include changed economic circumstances, shift in local and global forces, increasing urgency and “buy-in” to global climate change worries, as well as development of new ideas & approaches to the future.  Past participants also have gotten insights into the impact of sustainability, high oil prices, and technology has all had on packaging.  In addition the multi-sponsor team will have the opportunity to be a global change force for packaging and will have the potential to develop and support various packaging recommendations going forward.

Q: What are the milestones and overall timing?

A: Three key meetings throughout 2010 with on-going data / knowledge updates. The first meeting will be held in early 2010. The second meeting will be in the late spring with focus on continued refinement of the data, knowledge, and insights to move toward actionable outcomes. The capstone meeting will be completed early Fall to lay out the 3, 5 and 10 year roadmap and action plans across the value chain for 2011 strategic planning sessions.

Q: Will you be benchmarking current best practices?

A:  Absolutely.  Global knowledge and insight will be used throughout the program. In addition, the PTIS/Leading Futurists team will be attending most of the key conferences related to packaging. On-going executive summaries from these conferences will be provided to sponsors – this component alone pays for the program!

Q: What is the cost of sponsorship?

A:  The cost is $25,000 (US) for the entire program. Included are the 3 meetings, with on-going reports and white papers developed throughout the program.  This allows sponsors to bring 2 associates to each of the 3 meetings.  Executive summaries from key packaging conferences will also be provided to sponsors along with many key tools, processes and strategic packaging roadmaps.

Q. What commitment is expected from a program sponsor?

A: There is no commitment by our sponsors to contribute any work to the program; the Future of Packaging team does the research and analysis for you. But we strongly urge you to plan attend our three sponsor meetings, and be ready to share your questions, wisdom, and insights on what’s happening in the packaging sector with the group. The power of this program is in bringing leading packaging executives together for a joint focus on the state and future of packaging. We will provide pre-read materials before each meeting so that sponsors can get the most out of each meeting.

Q: What is the 2010 – 2020 roadmap and how will it be created?

A: The 2010 – 2020 roadmap takes all of the insights gained during the program, including key collaborative input from program sponsors, and results in an action plan with key milestones for 3, 5, and 10 year horizons.  We utilize all of the tools and metrics at our disposal and will continue to triangulate and assimilate the data / knowledge / insights into meaningful action plans for all key parts of the value chain (i.e. brand owners, retailers, converters, raw material suppliers).

Q: How will you integrate global customer initiatives into the thinking?

A:  All parts of value chain will be covered and since most / all of the sponsors are global companies, we will be integrating both North American and Global perspectives for each part of value chain.

Q: This seems like an awful lot of information and knowledge – how will you simplify it for the various organizations?

A: PTIS and Leading Futurists will provide on-going summaries of the various meetings.  We will also develop a Senior Management summary that can be used at the CEO/Board level to show the importance and value of packaging for companies in the future.

Q: What are some of the key topics that will be covered?

A:  Based on feedback which we received from a number of past program participants, as well as other leading packaging thought leaders, the list below is a sampling of topics you could expect to see:

• Sustainability – including end of life, recyclability, infrastructure, global systems
• Global economy – what it means to packaging, new economic realities / impact, how consumers will react
• Legislation / Regulations – look at global trends, what could be coming to North America and packaging
• Measuring brand value and packaging
• Technology – what’s upcoming, how does technology allow packaging to interact with the consumer
• Safety / Security – how to use packaging to provide greater brand security / confidence with consumers; track & trace technologies
• Consumer / Channel trends – how will consumer’s use products and shop in the next decade
• Social Media and Packaging
• Scenario Development – how can my company / organization prepare for the unexpected
• Organizational Structure – what do successful companies do to foster innovation
• Open Innovation – what are others doing, how will it evolve

We hope that you find this list of Frequently Asked Questions to be helpful.  As always, if you have any additional questions, or would like to become a program sponsor, please contact a member of Future of Packaging: 2010 – 2020 team.

PTIS:	Leading Futurists:
Todd Bukowski todd@ptisglobal.com 734.972.4175	John Mahaffie jbmahaffie@leadingfuturists.biz 202.271.0444
Mike Richmond mike@ptisglobal.com 269.375.7031	Jennifer Jarratt jjarratt@leadingfuturists.biz 202.270.0903
www.ptisglobal.com	www.leadingfuturists.com