Packaging Innovations London postponed due to Covid-19

The organisers of Packaging Innovations & Luxury Packaging London have rescheduled the show due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Easyfairs said the event, which was due to take place at Olympia on 23 and 24 September and would have seen almost half its exhibitors (43.3 per cent) come from outside the UK, had been moved to 8 and 9 December at the same venue.

As more business is conducted online during the pandemic, Easyfairs has also launched a series of free webinars - the Innovation Talks - to provide relevant content and a platform for industry discussions for the packaging community. 

Renan Joel, divisional director for Easyfairs UK & Global's packaging events, said: "The international outbreak and spread of Covid-19 has had a huge impact on everyone's lives and specifically in the exhibitions industry on the ability to bring people together and run live events.

"Whilst we have worked hard on health and safety measures to ensure that we could be very positive about the running of a safe and successful event in September, the two-week quarantine period for anyone arriving in the UK that was recently enforced as part of the UK government aciton plan to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, followed by last week's announcement from the Prime Minister that events are only able to run from 1 October 2020, has unfortunately put us in the Force Majeure position of having to move the show.  

"Having already spoken to many in our community, we have been overwhelmed by the positivity and enthusiasm with which the move has been received and the support that the packaging industry has shown for our events generally. It is very clear that they will play a crucial role in the rebuilding of many sales pipelines in sectors that have suffered and are vitally placed to bring the industry back together after a long period of distancing - social and physical." 

He added: "We are looking forward to running an event in December that adheres to the highest level of sanitary and health standards, and will share more details in due course regarding the measures we will be putting in place to do so."

28 July 2020 - Bethany Whymark