UPCOMING ISTA EDUCATIONAL EVENTS!

The 2011 ISTA China Packaging Symposium will be held on September 21-23 in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, China at the Lanzhou Jiaotong University. This will be ISTA’s 6th educational event in China. Mark your calendars and plan to attend!

INTERESTED IN SPEAKING AT THE SYMPOSIUM?

Please CLICK HERE to submit a topic and abstract for this event. The deadline for submitting the required information is July 29, 2011.

Sponsors:
The Symposium offers an excellent opportunity for sponsorships. The sponsorship benefits include, but are not limited to, promotion at the Symposium as well as promotion in ISTA publications, on the websites and pre-event mailings and emails. Please CLICK HERE for sponsorship details. The deadline to have your logo in the printed brochure is August 8, 2011.

Exhibitors:
The Symposium provides an excellent venue to promote your company’s products and services in China and Asia. Exhibitors will be promoted in the Symposium Brochure and on the websites. Additional details will be as they become available.

ISTA European Packaging Symposium Program is Available - Register Today to Take Advantage of the Early Bird Rate!

ISTA and ITENE invite you to attend ISTA European Packaging Symposium to be held October 18-19, 2011 in Valencia, Spain. This will be the third Symposium to be held in Europe at the facilities of ITENE. We have brought together leading packaging experts from around the world to present at this years Symposium. Early Bird Registration ends July 31st.

The Symposium will provide insight and benefit to delegates on the critical link between packaging and effective distribution of products, focusing on cost savings and delivering against sustainability requirements.

Presentations will give a practical overview on economic and environmental optimization of distribution packaging development and on latest techniques in testing of packaged products to assess fitness for distribution.

The Symposium program is now available! Case studies will be presented by representatives from: Pira International, Sealed Air, Bosch Siemens Hausgerate (BSH), ERICSSON, Michigan State University, ITENE, Fraunhofer Institute IML, UPS, BP Lubricants, Billerud, INCPEN, ISTA, SCA Cool Logistics, BASF Espanola, and Novamart. Visit the Symposium website for details on the Symposium program!

ADDED BONUS: ISTA Certified Packaging Laboratory Professional (CPLP) Workshop is scheduled to be held prior to the European Packaging Symposium on October 16-17, 2011. Please contact Lisa Bonsignore at ISTA (lisa@ista.org, phone +1 517-333-3437) if you are interested in becoming CPLP Certified or for more information on these workshops.

ISTA’s 2012 International Transport Packaging Forum will be held on April 2-5, 2012 at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts in Orlando, Florida! We have already started working on the program for next year so keep checking the Forum website for updates!

CALL FOR PAPERS! If you have an interesting and informative topic or case study related to transport packaging, the distribution environment, sustainability, product protection, testing, packaging innovations, or related subjects and would like to be a speaker, we want to hear from you! Click here to submit a title and abstract for consideration.

ISTA Technical Division 3-Phase Procedure Review Underway!

The ISTA Testing Council, at their annual spring meeting April 18 in Orlando, FL, agreed to launch an aggressive 3-Phase plan to review all current ISTA Procedures and Projects over the next 12-18 months. The first phase of this plan, Phase 1, has already begun.

We conducted a survey of all ISTA Certified Labs and received a good response to our questions of how many ISTA tests had been performed over a 12-month period. The results of this survey, along with data showing how many test reports for each procedure and project have been submitted to ISTA, are currently being reviewed by a workgroup consisting of ISTA member representatives to determine which ISTA Procedures and Projects will remain in publication and which will be discontinued. A proposal will be made to the ISTA Technical Board and Testing Council in late July 2011.

The other 2 phases of this plan are:
Phase 2: This phase will involve a comprehensive review, by Series, of each ISTA Procedure and Project that the Phase 1 Workgroup decides to continue publishing. This review will include a look at accuracy, both editorial and technical, and consistency throughout the procedures and projects. This phase will also involve the participation of ISTA member representatives and an invitation to join the workgroup will be sent in late July.

Phase 3: After the comprehensive review from Phase 2, a new workgroup will begin the task of reviewing the existing format of the remaining ISTA Procedures and Projects. Some questions the workgroup will address:

• Is the current format the best format for ALL users of ISTA Procedures and Projects?
• Is there a different, or additional, format that we could use to meet the needs of different users (such as a shortened version or a different format with all the specific details)?
• Is there a better way to maintain consistency and accuracy throughout the Test Series that we could use?

Phase 3 will begin its work once Phase 2 is done. At this time, our goal is to have the plan completed in time for changes to be published in the 2013 version of the ISTA Resource Book.

At the end of each Phase we will send out an invitation to member Delegates and Alternates asking for participation for the next phase. All members are encouraged to participate in one or more phases; if there is someone in your company that would be better suited to participate, the Delegate or Alternate should feel free to pass the invitation along. Each phase will be done through electronic means and will not require any travel. Workgroup participants must be a representative of a current ISTA member and have access to the Internet as we will utilize online software to share documents and hold discussions during each Phase.

If you have any questions, please contact Meredith Dougherty: meredith@ista.org ; +1 517-333-3437 ext 217

Advertisements

Lansmont Corporation:

Pro-Pack Testing Laboratory: