French put accent on innovation at processing and packaging shows
Some 170,000 visitors from 124 countries converged on the outskirts of Paris in late November to view exhibits, swap business cards and -- being France -- break bread at IPA and Emballage 2000, Europe's answer to the Pack Expo/IAFIS double-whammy held earlier in November at Chicago's McCormick Place.
The Paris event marked the first time that IPA -- primarily a food processing exhibition -- and Emballage -- a multi-industry packaging show -- combined their events under a single roof, in this case that of the cavernous Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre near Charles DeGaulle Airport.