Packaging Innovations & Empack 2026 has announced the first wave of speakers for its upcoming edition, confirming a wide-ranging conference programme that will bring together industry leaders, innovators and emerging brands across four dedicated stages. The event will take place on 11 & 12 February at Birmingham’s NEC and will feature contributions from more than 80 speakers examining the trends, challenges and opportunities shaping the future of packaging. Sessions will be delivered across the Circular Economy, Design & Innovation, Supply Chain, and Discovery Theatre Stages, with participation from senior representatives of global brands, leading designers, regulators, engineers and start-ups operating across the packaging ecosystem.
The conference agenda brings together a broad cross-section of the global packaging landscape, uniting brands, manufacturers, retailers, technology providers and policy-focused organisations over its two-day programme. Expertise spans global brands including Rolls-Royce, Nestlé, Unilever, Diageo, Coca-Cola and Greggs, alongside organisations such as PackUK, The Sustainable Packaging Coalition, UK DMO, WRAP, RECOUP, BCMPA, The Packaging Federation, McKinsey & Co, and Smithers.
“The agenda is designed to ignite curiosity and spark ideas across the packaging industry,” said Casey McHugh, Conference & Community Manager – UK & Global at Easyfairs. “It’s a journey through innovation, creativity, and collaboration, where every session highlights the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the future of packaging. Every session is an opportunity to see the next chapter of packaging unfold.”
Programming on the Design & Innovation Stage opens on Day 1 at 10:45 am with Gillian Garside-Wight, Director of Consulting at Aura, who will explore how brands can move from reactive compliance toward proactive value creation. At 12:30 pm, Dr Samuel West, founder and curator of the Museum of Failure, will deliver a session focused on the role of failure in driving innovation. Paul Horton, Principal – Packaging, Graphics at Diageo, will demonstrate how AI-driven design tools and human creativity are being combined to develop luxury beverage experiences, while a dedicated session on the London Packaging Week Innovation Awards will run from 2–2:45 pm, highlighting what defines award-winning innovation.
Day 2 continues with a session led by Chloe Williams, Co-Chapter Lead, WIN: Women in Innovation, joined by Sarah Leech, Head of Packaging & Design – Homecare at Unilever, and Kelly Dawson, Co-Founder & Strategy Partner at Studio Every, examining empathy-driven design and inclusive innovation. At 12:15 pm, Creative Technologist Jude Pullen will focus on resilience and creativity, followed by the Packaging Start-up Awards at 1:30 pm, where innovators from around the world will present solutions across six categories.
On the Supply Chain Stage, Alexia Williams of Rolls-Royce will participate in a panel titled ‘Lighting the spark: Inspiring the next generation of packaging engineers’, alongside representatives from Sheffield Hallam University, packaging apprentices and industry associations addressing the UK skills gap. Ciaran Little, Vice President of Global Consultancy at Smithers, will provide an outlook on market transformation on Day 1 at 12:30 pm. Later sessions feature Josephine Coombe, Chief Commercial Officer Europe at Nulogy, Emma Verkaik, CEO of BCMPA, and Jayne Tarrant, Managing Director at Glowcroft Contract Packing, discussing software-enabled co-packing at 1:30 pm. Additional panels bring together experts in robotics and automation, including Mike Wilson of MTC, Martin Miller of Greggs, Rosie Davies of Reeco Automation Limited, and Dr Seemal Asif of Cranfield University, to examine AI and predictive maintenance.
On the second day at 10:45 am, Felix Gruenewald and Andrea Gandolfi, Partners at McKinsey, will examine how engineering and operations teams can balance compliance, performance and cost-efficiency, drawing on insights from McKinsey’s “Sustainable Packaging 2025” research, before, at 11:30 am, a hand-picked group of early-stage brands pitches products and growth plans to a panel of “Dragons” in the inaugural Pitch the Co-Packers, the first such session in Packaging Innovations & Empack history, followed by a session featuring Biffa’s Innovation Manager Amy Hooper, Anthony Horsnby from Sherborne Recycling and Yaseed Chaumoo, Managing Director at Deepnest, powered by GreyParrot AI, discussing advances in AI that are making it possible to see what is really being sorted, recycled or lost.
On the Circular Economy stage, Alice Harlock, Director of Technical and Member Services at OPRL, will do a 30-minute session aimed at helping visitors understand the new EU labelling landscape. This will be followed by PackUK’s established industry update, offering a briefing on the policies influencing the future of packaging and packaging waste in the UK. At 12 pm, Paul East, Head of Packaging Recycling and Design at RECOUP, will bring together the leaders from packaging manufacturing, packer-filling, retail and major brands to examine what is required to build recyclability into packaging from the earliest design stages.
The Future Trailblazer Class of 2026 will be recognised on stage on Day One at 1 pm. Later that afternoon, at 2:45 pm, James Piper and Robbie Staniforth return to the stage where they first recorded their live podcast, addressing the complexities of recycling. The Circular Economy stage will also host The Big Debate, chaired by Martin Kersh, Co-CEO of The Packaging Federation, which will consider the motion, ‘This house believes that waste management will not improve due to the impact of artificial intelligence’.
On Day 2, the focus shifts to cross-border policy experience and practical implementation. A high-level pan-European session on Deposit Return Schemes will examine lessons from countries that have already introduced such systems. The session will feature Julian Hunt, Director at the UK DMO and Head of DRS Delivery at Coca-Cola, alongside representatives from across Europe, with discussion centred on practical insights from established DRS schemes. PackUK will then return to the stage for a second session, bringing together voices from across the packaging value chain. The Circular Economy stage will conclude with a WRAP-led panel, moderated by Lowelle Bryan, Senior Reuse Specialist at WRAP, examining why retailers, supported by WRAP and government, have come together to explore a nationwide prefilled reusable packaging system.