With the “Women in the Packaging Industry” series, FACHPACK360° has already given numerous women from the packaging world a (digital) voice, presented their biographies and reporting on their successes. Now, for the first time, there is an opportunity for the many female professionals in the industry to network – not virtually, but live and on site at FACHPACK, this year’s most important European trade fair for the packaging industry and its users. FACHPACK 2024 is organizing the new Women4Packaging event for exhibitors and visitors on the first day of the trade fair, September 24, from 12:00 to 14:00. Whether you are a student on a relevant degree course, a designer, a buyer, or an engineer: any woman from the packaging industry can take part, all she has to do is register in advance.
Women4Packaging offers inspiration
The panel will begin with keynote speakers, followed by discussion rounds with the experts. However, the focus will be on the subsequent networking and bringing together the various participants. Women will have the opportunity to make new contacts in an informal atmosphere, learn from each other, benefit from each other, and discover new ideas to apply in their own fields of work.
Women4Packaging can also be a place to find creative impulses, inspiration, and motivation for new career steps or new developments, according to the organizers.
The panel discussion will be moderated by Sonja Bähr, Packaging Analyst. “I have observed that women have a different way of communicating with each other. They take the interpersonal exchange into account and at the same time often get to the point better. They are also much more committed to each other when it comes to specific activities. The Women4Packaging format provides a supportive framework for this. I am very much looking forward to being part of the kick-off,” says Sonja Bähr.
The packaging technician and industrial engineer is a proven expert in the industry. From 2000 to 2003, she was Managing Director of the German Packaging Institute (dvi). “I gave up this position due to my first maternity leave and was employed at the dvi until after my second maternity leave – one year at a time – until 2007,” she reports. Bähr then took over the management of the Association of German Packaging Engineers from 2007 to 2018, “part-time and working from home in order to juggle my children and my job. This flexibility has become much more normal today, partly because we have seen during the coronavirus pandemic that working remotely works well. What still needs to be addressed is equal pay for equal performance in the same positions and the hope that women will stand up more vehemently for good pay.”
When asked whether the packaging industry was still male-dominated, Bähr replies: “Just as male as other technical industries, not so much in the masses, but still in management positions. But I am observing changes: there are now more women than men studying packaging technology and graduating with much better grades. I believe that in another five to ten years, we will see that the measures taken today to improve the balance between career and family will lead to many more women reaching top positions.”
Registration now open
The detailed program of the free event has not yet been announced. Anyone who registers now will receive early updates on the Women4Packaging event. FACHPACK360° will also report on the rest of the program in advance – and continue to present women from the packaging industry.
