Guest: Tom Egan, Vice President, Industry Services, PMMI
PACK EXPO East celebrates 10 years in Philadelphia as the go-to regional show where the packaging and processing community comes together to kick off the year. From automation and AI to sustainability, new exhibitor programs, and hands-on innovation, PACK EXPO East 2026 is where teams connect, explore, and jumpstart what’s next.
Tom Egan serves as the vice president of Industry Services for PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. He joined the PMMI staff in 2003 following more than 20 years in the packaging industry during which he was also an active PMMI member. His previous work experience includes tenures at Eaton Corp. and as Vice President, Marketing & Sales, for Hoppmann Corporation. He has an MBA from Baldwin-Wallace College, and a BEE in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University.
Sean Riley: So with all the fancy introductions out of the way, welcome to the podcast, Tom.
Tom Egan: Thank you, Sean. It's good to see you here in 2026 already.
Sean Riley: Yes, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. PACK EXPO East has a dear spot for both of us, being from this Philadelphia area. It's already been 10 years since we started it. So I guess to kick things off, what makes PACK EXPO stand out? Why has it sustained for a decade that we've been able to pull off this regional show in Philadelphia?
Tom Egan: Yeah, I think it's great to recognize that we are at 10 years, and it is a comprehensive show. We're going to have an estimated 8,000 attendees. We've got almost 500 exhibitors. We'll probably be over that by the time the show opens. And it's just a recognition that it's where the organization, where the packaging and processing community can get together here this early in the year.
We do have a large number of companies that are based in the Mid-Atlantic, and why it represents such a draw, easy and well-known names that you would recognize, that we all would recognize, such as Hershey and Utz, Colgate, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson are all within an hour and a half drive of the Philadelphia Convention Center. So it becomes an all-in-one gathering place early in the year. The companies, the attendees can make some decisions on what they're doing, and the exhibitors can showcase what it is that they are offering here in 2026, jumpstart everybody.
Sean Riley: Yeah. And I know that a thing that we like to highlight, because of the availability and being in that Mid-Atlantic hub, companies are able to bring teams of people, versus in Chicago or Vegas, they might not be flying out 10, 11, maybe some junior staffers who might not be able to see a show, something like that. So this gives that opportunity as well, right?
Tom Egan: It is. I think it's a great point that you're mentioning. Recognize that when you're going to the PACK EXPO East, you bring that larger group and often some of the production personnel that don't often get an opportunity to interact with the exhibitors and to spend that little bit of time away from the office focusing on having the discussion and seeing what's new and what is interesting at a trade exhibition. You bring that team together. They're able to talk a little bit on the drive to the convention center, or the train ride into the convention center, which is very convenient, and then bring that information away from it and really have a chance to talk as you're headed back, “Hey, what was that one thing that you saw?” Or, “We talked about that one particular piece of equipment, and I saw some new ideas there that we want to pursue here in ’26.”
Sean Riley: Yeah, I love that. All right. We're talking about this current edition that's coming up, and we always have new things at our PACK EXPO portfolio of trade shows. So what's going to be new? What can people expect to see at PACK EXPO East 2026 that they haven't seen at other shows?
Tom Egan: We start with the Containers and Materials Pavilion, Sean. It is not new. At the same time, it's always new. Everything that you're going to see at the Containers and Materials Pavilion, because every type of material and packaging is constantly and incrementally evolving, you'll see some ideas and approaches there where you said, “I need to think about that. That's a different way of being able to present the product that the consumer packaged goods company wants to offer to the marketplace.” Perhaps it's a different size or maybe even a different format, just depending upon what they're trying to do. I love the area and always make a visit to the Containers and Materials to see, hey, there's just that different approach that's going to help with recovery, recycling, reuse, sustainability, an approach that you want to have in the marketplace, including for product presence, which is so critical to product success. That's what you're going to see. But that's just one.
We have a new idea this year, which we are calling the Incubator Hub, and this is in partnership with the Ben Franklin Technology Partnership Group, where we're showcasing some new companies that are bringing products that would be useful in packaging and processing, in order to have them interact with our audience there. It's a really neat idea. They're going to bring some different approaches, and they're pretty excited about the opportunity to present.
And then, of course, we're trying a new business track, if you will, the Small and Medium Business FastTrack we're calling it, where it's a designation with the exhibitors that are very interested in connecting with small and medium businesses in order to advance the success of those businesses and the success of what the exhibitor is offering in the marketplace.
We actually have an icon that you can see in the exhibitor directory that is called a gear icon, and that's a good one for you to be able to see for anybody that's bringing machinery. So it's not specific to the Incubator Hub, not specific to the FastTrack. It's all those that are bringing machinery in order for our attendees to get up close and really see what it is that the machine is that is being offered by the exhibitor.
Sean Riley: I love that. Yeah, we talk about the Hersheys and the Mercks, but so many of the attendees are the small and medium-sized companies, so it is good to have that marker for them to know where to look for people that would cater to their businesses.
Tom Egan: It's just that piece that's one extra element to help identify in the show what it is that you want to see. It leads into that piece about how you're going to prepare for it. So you take a look at some of the preparation work and some of the tools that PMMI offers for that. The My Show Planner on packexpo.com is outstanding. And some of the material and information that's there, that the exhibitor themself provides about the solution that they're offering, gives you a chance to really dive deep into that.
A user of the PACK EXPO app, what you're able to do there is to get the information and to help identify, right in the exhibit hall itself, where you are and where it is that the other exhibitors are located. It's also an outstanding tool to see some of the material that's being presented on the different stages that we have available. So that tool in and of itself gives you that extra slice of information to really help you make your decision first, as you're planning in the My PACK EXPO Show Planner, and then on the PACK EXPO app.
Sean Riley: And now the app, if I'm not mistaken, has GPS guidance through it when you're on the floor, right?
Tom Egan: Yeah, it's pretty neat. It's that piece of I’m here, and those of us that are occasionally directionally challenged—
Sean Riley: Exactly.
Tom Egan: —When you need to get from aisle 300 to aisle 1,100, let's say, here's the best way to go and do that. And not just to get to the aisle, of course, but to the actual exhibitor for the next visit or plan that you have on your plan for visiting and attending the show.
Sean Riley: Yeah. I know we debuted that at Vegas, and it was a great tool to have. I definitely took advantage of that. We've touched on the show itself. We're coming out of 2025, we're going into ’26. To put a button on the discussion, what are the top five things that you expect to see—the trends, the hot technologies—that attendees, exhibitors, that we're going to be seeing at PACK EXPO East 2026?
Tom Egan: Yeah, we can talk about automation as such a big category. Really, though, you can begin to segment that into all of the different robotics that are going to be available, and what you're seeing in terms of videos online, and now what they can offer. I saw a couple of presentations recently where there are bipedal robots that are, in fact, putting material into a container and then moving the container from one spot to another. So it's continuing to evolve there with what you have with the robots.
Of course, artificial intelligence, a whopping three years old from the very first announcement in November of 2022, is now an integral part of almost everything that you're taking a look at. It's being used as a tool for helping more and more to begin to design different machines, put some ideas in, take a look at what constraints you might have, and then to help, especially with things like training, with the utilization of the machine, with any debugging that you may need to do to be able to go right there. So that artificial intelligence technique and capability that's built in is another one.
I always think that we take a look at sustainability—I mentioned that with the Containers and Materials. And then, we have so many operators that are in the workforce now and looking to continue to gain experience. And so, those workforce solutions, those workforce support elements, I think, are additional ones that an attendee can take a look at, understand what it is that the exhibitor's offering is, and find how that solution may fit into their business.
Sean Riley: Perfect. This was great. We've only got a couple more weeks until the show comes, but this is the kind of information that people are looking for. I think this will be really helpful for our listeners. So thanks again, Tom, for taking time out of your day to come on here.
Tom Egan: Good. We're looking forward to seeing everybody in Philadelphia. Come by and say hello, we've got the PMMI booth. And we are looking forward to welcoming the exhibitor and attendee personnel February 17th and 19th at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Sean, I appreciate the opportunity to share these with you and with the audience.
Sean Riley: My pleasure, Tom.
