What to expect at London Packaging Week 2026

Discover the future: What’s waiting for packaging professionals at London Packaging Week 2026

Packaging has become one of the most strategically important functions within modern business.

It influences brand perception, sustainability performance, regulatory compliance, operational efficiency and commercial growth, often all at once. Today's packaging professionals are expected to solve increasingly complex challenges, balancing changing legislation, rising consumer expectations, material innovation and relentless commercial pressure without slowing the pace of innovation.

Returning to Excel London on 16 & 17 September 2026, the UK's leading packaging event has been reimagined around a single idea: Discovery. Bringing together more than 220 exhibitors, 90 expert speakers, and leading global brands and organisations, including Walpole, British Beauty Council, WSTA, and Pentawards, it has become the place where packaging professionals discover what comes next.

Across the show floor, 18 dedicated experiences, including 10 brand-new additions, create countless opportunities to explore emerging technologies, discover breakthrough materials, hear directly from industry leaders and connect with the people redefining packaging across luxury, beauty, premium drinks, food and FMCG.

The only difficult decision is deciding where to begin.

Where tomorrow's ideas arrive first

Discovery Theatre

Today's niche innovation often becomes tomorrow's industry standard.

The new Discovery Theatre shines a spotlight on the businesses, technologies and ideas beginning that journey. Featuring start-ups, SMEs and emerging suppliers, the programme explores everything from artificial intelligence and connected packaging to material science, circularity and digital innovation.

For visitors responsible for future packaging strategy, it offers an early look at developments that could soon reshape design, manufacturing and consumer engagement.

Meet the companies challenging convention

Start-Up Zone

Innovation rarely starts with the biggest businesses.

The Start-Up Zone brings together ambitious companies developing fresh technologies, alternative materials, and new ways to solve long-standing packaging challenges. It gives visitors the opportunity to meet innovators before they become household names and discover solutions that larger markets have yet to adopt.

Competitive advantage often belongs to the people who discover ideas before everyone else does.

Where creativity becomes commercial advantage

Design Hub powered by Pentawards

The best packaging is never a choice between creativity and engineering. It succeeds because the two work together. The Design Hub, powered by Pentawards, has been created for exactly that reason, bringing together designers, brands and packaging specialists to explore ideas, discover materials and exchange expertise.

Alongside expert presentations and networking opportunities, visitors can experience Pentawards' showcase of outstanding 2026 packaging design, demonstrating how exceptional creativity continues to drive commercial success across global brands.

Experience innovation before it reaches the market

Innovation Gallery

Innovation is easier to understand when you can experience it.

The Innovation Gallery brings together some of the industry's most exciting packaging developments, enabling visitors to explore breakthrough solutions up close before discovering the thinking, engineering and material innovation behind each project through expert-led guided tours hosted by ThePackHub.

Rather than reading about innovation, visitors can see it, handle it and understand why it matters.

Discovery becomes valuable when it leads to action

Ideas only become meaningful when they connect with the right people.

With more than 220 exhibitors spanning luxury, beauty, drinks, food and FMCG packaging, London Packaging Week brings together suppliers, converters, material specialists, design agencies and technology providers capable of turning concepts into commercial reality.

New networking experiences, including the Inner Circle Bar, Happy Hours, First Timers Drinks, the WRAP Breakfast and the Women in Packaging Breakfast, ensure conversations continue long after visitors leave the exhibition stands. Alongside these opportunities to connect, visitors can enjoy the exclusive premiere of a behind-the-scenes film from James Cropper, offering a rare glimpse inside one of the UK's last remaining coloured paper mills and the craftsmanship behind some of the world's most distinctive packaging materials.

Learn directly from the people shaping packaging

Alongside the exhibition, more than 90 expert speakers will explore the issues defining packaging's future.

From Esther Carter of PackUK to Jeremy Lindley of Diageo, Alex Center, Piera Toniolo of Dolce & Gabbana Beauty, and leaders from WRAP, PepsiCo, Selfridges, and the British Beauty Council, visitors will hear directly from the people making packaging decisions every day.

Returning highlights also include the London Packaging Week Innovation Awards, celebrating projects, technologies and creative thinking that are redefining packaging across luxury, beauty, drinks, food, consumer goods and sustainability.

The conversations everyone will be talking about

Podcast Studio

Some of the industry's most valuable insights never make it onto a conference stage.

The new Podcast Studio, sponsored by Auraveo, creates a space for the conversations that usually happen behind closed doors, bringing together designers, brand owners, innovators and decision-makers to discuss the realities of modern packaging. Visitors will hear honest reflections on commercial pressures, creative breakthroughs, sustainability challenges and the decisions that shape successful packaging projects long before products reach the shelf.

It is packaging without the script.

Where the future of packaging comes into focus

Packaging is changing faster than ever.

New regulations, new materials, new technologies and new consumer expectations are reshaping what good packaging looks like. Keeping pace requires more than reading reports or following headlines. It requires seeing innovation first-hand, challenging assumptions and having conversations with the people driving change.

That is what London Packaging Week has become.

Across two days at Excel London, visitors will discover ideas they had not considered, meet people they did not know they needed to meet and leave with a clearer understanding of where packaging is heading next.

Register now for your complimentary ticket and start your own journey of discovery at London Packaging Week 2026.