TRY TO REMEMBER
Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow, and oh so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green, and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow. Follow. Follow.
Here we are in September, and you might recognize these lyrics from the opening song of the musical comedy The Fantasticks that opened off-Broadway in 1960. The song—encouraging the audience to imagine what the sparse show set suggests—was originally performed by Jerry Orbach. He found fame in New York but also worldwide, starring as New York Police Department Detective Lennie Briscoe on the NBC legal drama Law & Order from 1992 to 2004.
Technology and innovation, the focus of this month’s issue of FlexPack VOICE®, are sometimes no different. They require intense imagination to bring a new flexible packaging format or material to development and market. And creativity is needed to expand a company’s products and services for its customers. It may also be necessary to bring new legislative or regulatory concepts to fruition through close collaboration between policymakers and industry stakeholders, including trade associations such as the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA).
You’ll read in these pages how Russell Grissett, FPA board chair and president and CEO of TOPPAN Packaging Americas, believes artificial intelligence is an innovative technology for companies, individuals, and our industry.
You will also learn about how students at packaging schools throughout the United States use technology to drive packaging design and innovation, as they hope to one day become leaders within our industry. Their creativity is captured in FPA’s annual Student Flexible Packaging Design Challenge.
It is important for policymakers to understand the significant investments our industry is making in technology and innovation as these legislators consider proposals that may impact us. One of our features looks at how FPA is exploring ways to expand its advocacy influence and reach through innovating our approaches and opportunities for membership awareness and engagement.
To that final point, I sincerely hope you can join us over September 17–18, 2025, in Washington, D.C., for our first membershipwide federal fly-in hosted by FPA’s Emerging Leadership Council. I can assure you it will be two fun days of public policy education, engagement, and networking. Your voices and expertise are incredibly critical to ensuring policymakers are aware of you and the importance of your products and our industry.
If you’re not able to join us this September in Washington, then follow, follow, follow us to our FlexForward® Conference in early November in New Orleans.
Dan Felton
President & CEO
Flexible Packaging Association