Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
PACK EXPO International 2026 puts workforce and safety themes in focus. Makai examines booth staffing, demonstration flow and sales handoffs.
On October 18, PACK EXPO International 2026 began its scheduled run at McCormick Place in Chicago. Food Engineering’s October 19 preview placed workforce shortages and rising safety and sustainability demands among the issues shaping the packaging and processing event. The show is scheduled through October 21.
For CPG and beverage marketing leaders, those themes belong in the activation brief alongside the creative concept. Equipment demonstrations need prepared people and a workable visitor path. Commercial conversations need someone responsible for carrying the interest forward.
Food Engineering describes this edition as the show’s largest to date. Its preview reports:
The programming also gives operational concerns a visible place on the floor. Food Engineering reports more than 150 free educational sessions across five show-floor stages. Topics include extended producer responsibility and recycling alongside material handling and supply-chain issues.
The preview also describes the new SMB FastTrack program. It is intended to highlight exhibitors and sessions suited to small and medium-sized businesses.
Separately, PMMI describes a Workforce Development Pavilion connecting attendees with education and training resources. The pavilion also connects companies and students with industry programs and career opportunities. Workforce development is therefore part of the event’s programming rather than just a discussion around equipment.
These are industry themes and exhibitor descriptions, not proof of an event-staff shortage or a newly announced safety mandate. The preview does not measure vacancies or safety incidents, independently validate equipment performance, or provide final attendance. The execution guidance below is our operational assessment rather than event-issued instructions.
Our view is simple: welcome people warmly and give the crew a clear plan. Aloha belongs in the interaction. Discipline belongs behind it.
For a CPG marketing leader, this show is an opportunity to connect brand priorities with packaging and processing decisions. The useful conversation may concern a production constraint or a supplier’s fit. A booth plan built only around attracting attention leaves that conversation without a clear place to go.
Makai plans and manages trade show spaces designed to attract attention and turn conversations into customers. Our work also spans staffing and logistics through CRM reporting. We believe those responsibilities belong in one operating picture rather than separate creative and sales documents.
At Natural Products Expo West 2025, we designed and managed a 40 by 20 foot trade show environment for Glanbia. Our scope covered concept and operations along with staffing and breakdown. More than 14,000 recorded product samples were distributed across the activation stations.
The useful lesson here is about the boundaries of a result. A sample count documents distribution. It does not establish qualified pipeline or explain who owns the next conversation.
That distinction matters when product activity and commercial discussions share an activation. Our approach to giving buyer conversations room apart from demonstration traffic addresses that planning tension. The goal is not a quieter booth. It is a space where attention has somewhere useful to go.
The operational response should connect staffing and demonstration planning with visitor flow and follow-up. Adding people without defining their responsibilities does not answer the underlying planning question. Neither does installing more lead-capture technology without deciding what information the next team needs.
Prepared booth staffing is a practical priority at the scale described by Food Engineering. For Makai, preparation starts with clarity about the interaction the brand wants to support.
A useful staffing brief can answer:
These are responsibilities rather than a prescribed headcount. The same person may cover more than one function when the activation supports it. The point is to make ownership visible before the floor gets busy.
Our team runs coast-to-coast programs using local crews and coordinated logistics. That experience informs our view that staffing should be planned around the work being performed rather than treated as a standalone booking.
Food Engineering’s preview describes a collaborative palletizing cell designed for safe operator interaction. It also describes an integrated inspection system with safety controls and packaging automation presented as addressing workforce-related bottlenecks.
For the field plan, those examples make demonstration boundaries and staff readiness relevant planning topics. An equipment presentation needs a considered relationship between the machinery and the people watching it. The visitor path should also account for people who want a conversation without joining the demonstration audience.
Our recommendation is to review the demonstration footprint and conversation space together. Clear attendee boundaries and escalation procedures appropriate to the equipment belong in that review. Avoid treating the equipment presentation as a feature that can be dropped into the layout after everything else is settled.
The educational program creates another planning consideration. With sessions distributed across the show floor, the operating brief should account for any staff attendance alongside booth responsibilities.
For brands evaluating suppliers, a session should have a defined connection to the operational question being investigated. For exhibitors, planned education time should sit alongside coverage and demonstration responsibilities. Neither decision requires an invented staffing formula.
PMMI’s Workforce Development Pavilion also provides a destination for investigating training resources. It is worth treating that opportunity as a focused learning objective rather than an unassigned item on a long show agenda.
A visitor’s interest has limited commercial value if the next team receives only a name. Our view is that the handoff should preserve why the conversation happened and what needs to happen next.
For a packaging or processing discussion, useful context may concern the operational problem and the relevant capability. A follow-up owner also needs to understand the agreed next conversation. Those are practical qualification questions rather than proof that a visitor is ready to buy.
Makai’s end-to-end services extend through CRM reporting. We see connecting lead capture with the sales handoff as part of execution rather than an administrative task left for after breakdown.
The commercial objective should also influence the activation’s broader role. A team can plan how booth interest connects with later field activity without assuming every visitor belongs in the same follow-up path. The appropriate destination follows the conversation rather than the volume of activity around it.
In Food Engineering’s preview, PMMI vice president of trade shows Laura Thompson said that “trends like AI, robotics, and automation have taken off and become prominent in the industry.” She also identified workforce challenges and sustainability demands alongside regulatory pressures as continuing concerns.
For marketing leaders, that is a useful frame for the brief. The demonstration should make the capability understandable. The staffing plan should make the conversation workable. The follow-up should carry forward the visitor’s actual operational question rather than repeat the presentation.
The immediate takeaway is to review the staffing map and lead-routing plan as one document. A strong demonstration deserves more than a busy viewing area. It needs a clear path from initial interest to a relevant commercial conversation.
That review should expose gaps in ownership rather than generate another layer of event paperwork. It is a practical way to connect the people on the floor with the team responsible for the next step.
Will you put those plans side by side today and resolve who owns the visitor handoff before your next activation?
Equipment demonstrations need room for attention and conversation, a trade-off Makai addresses through trade show spaces planned to attract visitors and convert interest into customers. For CPG teams facing inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing, Makai’s experiential campaigns and trade show activations are designed to turn brief interactions into qualified leads.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
