Interview with an ISTA Transport Forum Attendee

The annual ISTA Transpack Forum is coming up in Orlando, FL from March 25 – 28, 2013. As in previous years, Nelson will have members of its Technical Center team in attendance. Kent Longardner, Technical Sales Manager at Nelson, fills us in on his past experiences and gives us a preview of what to expect from this year’s ISTA Transpack Forum.
  

• How many times have you attended ISTA Transpack Forum or is this your first time?
  I have attended since 2008. The name has changed, but this year will be my 6th conference. 

• Walk us through a typical day at the forum. What are your activities?
  A typical day is filled with interesting presentations, an opportunity to meet new people within the packaging industry, as well as spend time with familiar faces during enjoyable outings.

  

• Can you give us an example of the type of presentations we should expect from this year’s forum?
  This year, ISTA gathered nearly 30 speakers within the packaging industry including manufacturers, suppliers, test labs, logistics and various university professors. Each presentation will focus on his or her specialty, yet all the speakers will be able to relate the topic to a practical application. This year brings new speakers and topics, yet they all involve the challenges of product arriving safely to the end user.

The complete list of 2013 speakers and topics can be found here.

• What are you looking forward to the most at the forum in March?
  My two favorite activities at the forum are the presentations and the evening activities. The presentations allow me to stay current with industry topics, specifically, correlating laboratory test results to the distribution environment. My first year at the conference, I chose to participate in the sand volleyball tournament and was placed with a group of people I had never met. The team included John Clarke and Rich Reiher, both part of the Nelson Company. Five years later, I too have joined the Nelson Company.

What are the advantages and benefits of attending the forum?

The ISTA Transpack Packaging Forum is nearly three days, centered on the presentations about current industry issues.  Each year, ISTA delivers an impressive group of speakers covering packaging, material handling, sustainability, distribution and more. I am eager to hear all the speakers, especially...

• Matt Daum (Hewlett-Packard) "Packaging Anti-Counterfeit: Securing Products For Distribution"
• Dave Leinberger (ABF Freight) "Packaging Tips for LTL Transportation"
• John Clarke (Nelson Co.) "Pallets 103: Pallets and Material Handling Equipment"

You mentioned John Clarke from the Nelson Company, can you tell us what we can expect from his talk?

We can expect a better understanding of how pallets and material handling equipment work together to support packaged products. This presentation reviews Pallet and Material Handling Equipment Interactions and how to improve pallet performance and reduce pallet costs.

How does attending the forum help you as a member of the Nelson sales and technical center team?

The ISTA Transpack Forum allows us to interact with our target market. The attendees are the people with pallet/packaging issues or the ones who have solved their pallet/packaging problems. Learning from others helps us to apply additional technical knowledge to our customers’ needs. For example, the Nelson Company is participating on an ISTA team that is focusing on creating guidelines for packaging and shipping tall, heavy, fragile products, such as expensive, racked, computer systems. These computer systems make transport very difficult because of the high center of gravity and the small footprint. These challenges are directly related to a customer with a similar product. Lessons learned from others within ISTA have allowed the Nelson Company to apply new designs to our current customer. 

Do you have a question for Kent? Leave your question in the comments section and he will answer your question!

Interview with: Kent Longardner, Technical Sales Manager

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