IPACK-IMA 2025

27 - 30 May 2025, Fiera Milano Rho, Milan

The “Art of Innovation”: process and packaging materials and technologies for the food and non-food world. New markets and a strategy that aims for the success of a trade show in constant evolution. Valerio Soli, President of IPACK-IMA, tells us more.

Following a tradition that sees IPACK-IMA as a point of reference in interpreting market needs, the 2025 edition is emerging as a testing ground for a number of important new developments and a starting point for a new approach to the trade fair event concept, regarding which the Milanese event will show, once more, its historic aptitude for innovation.

Here are some observations received directly from the President of IPACK-IMA, Valerio Soli.

«The 2025 edition, for which we already have many applications and confirmations, has been conceived as an accelerator of the approach that characterized the success of 2022, in which the key words were digitalisation, sustainability and innovation. They are themes that are still very relevant but which we expect will undergo evolutions and additions in the coming years. And IPACK-IMA will certainly not find itself unprepared in this regard, responding to the new demands of industry and promoting emerging themes with a particular focus on the best performing markets, such as grain-based food, beverages and pharma. This is all without forgetting the event’s roots, reinterpreted in a broader packaging context that ranges from secondary to tertiary, to end-of-line».

A new trade show concept is on the way

It may seem like a cliché, but IPACK-IMA 2025 is a turning point with respect to the traditional concept of the all-encompassing trade fair, thanks to extensive discussion and exchange with the main exhibitors and operators in the sector, who have placed emphasis on the trade fair channel for their business promotion needs. In this regard, Soli continues:

«We are witnessing a decisive change in the way to do trade shows. IPACK-IMA can keep track of the market through UCIMA (Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers' Association) and Fiera Milano, making use of the best professionals in interpreting the economic dynamics of packaging and trends in events. It’s a synergy that makes it possible to abandon the old concept of the generalist trade fair, transforming it into a point of reference of the business community and ideal place to discuss the main issues of the industry. Our clients have suggested, therefore, that the three-year frequency, the classic formula for our event, is no longer appropriate given the speed of evolution of technologies and the market.

This is why, starting from 2025, we are doing away with the three-year fair model to move in the direction of a set of trade fair events focused on individual product sectors, which will guide exhibitors on a path for interpreting technological development to 2028. Not to be forgotten at this stage of close contact with the market and its operators, is the constant collaboration on “The Innovation Alliance” project and the three concurrent trade shows, Print4All, Intralogistica and GreenPlast, able to offer a complete overview of the related supply chains of instrumental mechanics».