Virginia Tech students unpack new experiences at PACK EXPO 2024

Jessie Imorde’s attendance at PACK EXPO 2024 involved setting up booths, recruiting businesses to attend her major’s spring career fair, networking with those in the packaging and design industry, and seaweed.

Yes, you read that last word correctly.

The senior from Gainesville, Virginia, was one of 24 Virginia Tech students and among the 47,000 attendees overall who gathered at McCormick Place in Chicago in late November for the annual international packaging trade show. With sustainability being a major theme at the event, Imorde witnessed some unique alternatives to traditional plastic packaging.

“We saw some paper bubble wrap, for example,” Imorde said. “We saw other corrugated products like dunnage [wood-based material] and things like that that might be traditionally plastic based.  We saw one thing that was made of seaweed, which was cool. It was nice to see those innovations and progress within the industry.”

PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, sponsors the four-day trade show, which alternates between Chicago and Las Vegas. The attendees include a combination of industry executives unveiling the latest packaging and processing technologies; those in the consumer products, pharmaceutical, and other spaces looking to exchange ideas and find solutions for products and projects; and college students sharing their research and getting exposed to what a future career in the packaging and design industry looks like.

Virginia Tech presence

Virginia Tech has been sending students to PACK EXPO for years, with Eduardo Molina, assistant professor in packaging system and design within Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, coordinating much of the logistics.

“One of the things that we’ve always tried to do is to make sure they have an experience, a world exposure to what the industry is, what they’re doing, and what type of jobs they’re going to have after they graduate, and so one of the first motivations is to be able to give them this,” Molina said. “They do this throughout our program. They work with industry in classes, we go on field trips, and they do internships and co-ops. Participating in these events also gives them an exposure to the industry as a whole, or almost as a whole.”

The trip serves as an example of a university initiative known as Virginia Tech Advantage, one in which the university helps to secure financial support for career preparation and transformational learning experiences among other things. The Department of Sustainable Biomaterials provided some financial support for the trip, and Molina applied to PMMI to get additional financial assistance.

“We want to make sure it’s not only for students who have the money, but that all the students can apply to it and go to it because it’s definitely a good opportunity for them in their career,” Molina said. “I want to make sure it’s equitable for everybody to access, and we try to do that.”

Students benefit

Discussing the benefits of attending PACK EXPO first involves telling what it isn’t. This is not necessarily the time and place for a student to secure a co-op or internship, according to Jerry McCarthy.

McCarthy, a senior from New Jersey, serves as the president of Virginia Tech’s Packaging Systems and Design Club. He attended PACK EXPO for the second time, and he used this year’s event to network, though he already has a position as a packaging engineer lined up with Unilever following his graduation.

“I think it’s more of a good opportunity for networking and seeing what’s out there in my major’s industry,” McCarthy said. “You make surface-level connections, and then maybe you can reach out to people you met on LinkedIn and say, ‘Hey, we met at the EXPO, and if you’re hiring, I’m looking for a job.’”

Marta Ghigo, a junior from Wheeling, West Virginia, echoed similar thoughts. She was an intern in the personal care division of Unilever last spring, working specifically with the Dove brand. She has an internship with Newell Brands, which owns Yankee Candle and Sharpie, scheduled for this summer, and wanted to get an even bigger perspective on packaging and design.

“It [PACK EXPO] not only lets you network with companies, but it also lets you see how big and real packaging is,” Ghigo said. “Packaging and design is a relatively new major and not a traditional field, but the trade show lets you see how many opportunities there are. You also talk with people who have had positive experiences and seeing that lets you have more confidence. You see what jobs may be available and what skills you might need.

“You can use it as an opportunity to practice your communication skills and to promote yourself as well. It’s also a time to detach from your coursework and see what interests you and maybe what areas you’d like to work in eventually. Use it as a resource to dig into what you might like to do later on.”

Recruiting for career fair

In addition to networking and seeing the latest products, several members of the Virginia Tech contingent spent time recruiting companies to come to the program’s annual career fair in the spring.  

The contingent set up two booths at PACK EXPO. One served to showcase students’ research in sustainable packaging and design and the other as an informational booth, providing company officials with information about Virginia Tech’s packaging program.

Getting companies to the career fair enables students to secure future internships and co-ops.

“There are a lot of people interested in hiring our students, so it’s a good way to make a connection between the industry and our students and get those opportunities for our program,” McCarthy said.

“I was really trying to push it,” Imorde said. “I had some business cards for the committee, and we would walk around and talk to companies interested in hiring students and hand them a card. We also had a lot of people come around to our booths, and they were interested in hiring students, so that was the perfect time to talk about the career fair.”

Molina said that the group had more than 100 interactions with companies, ensuring future internships in a field that continues to grow. In fact, attendance at PACK EXPO has increased nearly 20 percent since 2022.

“Students are getting more and more attracted to it, and one of the things that really help us attracting young students is the sustainability focus because it’s not necessarily just about making the packaging nicer,” Molina said. “It’s about helping society solve sustainability issues. … We want to minimize waste or minimize materials consumption, and that’s one of the opportunities that a student sees when going into this field.

The future

The trip to Chicago also included an alumni dinner in which Virginia Tech students were able to make connections with university alumni working in the packaging and design industry. The students heard about the experiences from the alumni and glean insight on the future direction of the industry.

“It was nice to talk to them,” Ghigo said. “Some of them were in packaging when it first started, and it was nice to hear about their experiences and how much it has changed. It was great for networking … and it was nice to make those connections.”

These conversations, the connections, the networking, and the general exposure to a growing industry are reasons why Molina and those in the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials plan to continue taking students to PACK EXPO each year.

“We love being able to do this and have students all take so much out of a single trip, which is having the interaction with the industry, having the interaction with alumni, exposing the students to the industry, the people, and getting to expose the Virginia Tech packaging brand to the larger packaging community,” Molina said. “We’re also one of the newer programs, and that’s something we need to make sure that’s always top of mind for everybody. We want those companies thinking, ‘We need to hire someone. Oh, I know Virginia Tech has a great program. Let’s reach out to them.”