In other news from the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (Arlington, VA) meeting Sept. 19-21, renowned business author Tom Peters was named as the featured speaker at the Spring 2001 meeting of PMMI, April 1 to 4, at Palm Beach, FL. The announcement was made by PMMI chairman Bernard McPheely, president of Hartness Intl. (Greenville, SC).
In addition, PMMI members reelected McPheely to another one-year term as chairman, and Mel Bahr, MGS Machine Corp. (Maple Grove, MN) was elected vice chairman. The membership also elected four members to four-year terms on the board of directors: Mike Faust, 3M Packaging Systems Div. (St. Paul, MN); Ed Gerri, Digital Design (Cedar Grove, NJ); Charles “Mack” Greene, Orion Packaging Systems (Memphis, TN), and Valerie Lapinski, ITW Dynatec (Hendersonville, TN).
The meeting also addressed the theme “Strategies for E-commerce” with several guest speakers. In addition, McPheely said that electronic versions of several PMMI publications are now or will soon be available. McPheely noted that IBM Corp. had been retained to help define and implement Web applications to enhance its members’ business practices, including customer relationship management.
Later, Stuart Stafman, chief executive officer of Packexpo.com and president of Cendex, the co-owner of the site, said the site was now being developed to become the "premier information and sales lead delivery vehicle" for the packaging community. That signals a shift from the previous strategy, described as becoming the industry's e-commerce hub for online buying and selling of packaging machinery and materials.
Stafman also indicated that PMMI members that buy "virtual exhibits" on the site would become privy to "premium benefits", including data mined from the individuals and companies that visit the overall site, not just individual virtual exhibits. This intelligence would not be available to companies that do not purchase virtual exhibits.
PMMI can be reached by phone at 703/243-8555.
