AICC President Mike D'Angelo Are you ready for Xperience?

https://www.aiccxperience.com/
Are you ready for AICC Xperience? May 22-24 Chicago 
Hope to see you there! 

What does the AICC do for its members? 
How can paper box manufacturers learn more to increase their success? 
What is the future of taking care of our customers? 

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Transcript

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Cory Connors: 0:00

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is Mr. Mike D'Angelo, the president of the A I C C. How are you,

Mike D'Angelo: 0:08

Mike? I'm real good. Corey, pleasure to be with you. Thank you very much.

Cory Connors: 0:12

Oh, thank you. I really am a big fan of your organization. We're gonna talk about your big event coming up here soon, and I want to get to all those details, but let's talk about you first. Before we do that, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how

Mike D'Angelo: 0:25

you got to be here? I'll be happy to 'em. I'm in the industry accidentally and in the industry over 40 years I don't think my story's too different than a lot of people. I went to work 40 years ago, a little more than 40 years ago for a company called Bobs North America now. And bobs is a machine manufacturer that offers printing and converting. In folding cart and corrugated and flexible packaging. I was just outta college couldn't find a job, went to work for Bobs figure in on entry level position. Figure in, I'll do this until I find my life's goal. And I spent 32 years at Bobs to waiting for my life's goal to appear. Yeah, and it turns out being in packaging, was my life's goal. I left Bobst, went to another manufacturer, Goss International. It was a manufacturer of. Basically publication printing presses. And they were looking at their future saying, boy, digital media's taken everything that we do. They wanted to get into packaging, and we worked with them to get them more into the packaging realm. And while I was at Bopt, I was a 25 year member of A I C, the Independent Packaging Association. And when I left Goss A I C was looking for someone. I didn't know it at the time to leave the organization. I thought working for Steve Young, I could do that for the rest of my life. But Steve brought me on board as a vice president and then, in, in July of 2019, he stepped back cuz somehow he knew a worldwide pandemic was coming and he just wanted to get out of the way of all the challenges. I've been now with A I C, I guess I'm well into my sixth year and it's. It's a labor of of love, quite frankly, for our members and for the mission. Yeah.

Cory Connors: 2:03

Congratulations on a very successful career and along, one ahead of you, I'm sure. Let's talk about, I

Mike D'Angelo: 2:08

might, I might find my way to what I really want. I've got an education in city and county planning, so maybe some Oh, really?

Cory Connors: 2:14

Do that? Yeah. Yeah, let's do that. You never know where this life will take you. You never. So I remember as a very young person, wor working at Warehouser and I worked at worked on several boxed machines. Can you tell the audience what boxed machines do?

Mike D'Angelo: 2:31

Essentially boxed generally machines take raw material, be it paper or film, and through a variety of different methods either print. Rotor, gravure, flexo, digital litho. Now with their offering today they think we're far simpler 40 years ago, as you can imagine. Yeah. Can print or convert via rotary via platinum dye cutting, rotary dye, cutting. Slitting, rewinding, depending on if it's a film or a paper-based material. And also folding and gluing. They're they've got vacuum metalizing. It's a very diverse company these days. And basically touch all aspects of the packaging industry.

Cory Connors: 3:10

Yeah. And a very famous brand, very g good quality equipment. I

Mike D'Angelo: 3:15

remember space based company, good reputation. There's a lot of good competitors too, but yeah, it's good for all of the converters out there cuz all boats rise.

Cory Connors: 3:23

That's right. That's right. Said. Let's talk about the A I C C. What is it? Why should the people listening to this program be interested and be very interested in attending your experience here? Coming up in may.

Mike D'Angelo: 3:36

A I C is the Independent Packaging Association. We're gonna be celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2024. In 1974, a group of independents, about 54 companies decided that the, and these are small companies and the independent, the, I means they're privately held. Most of them are family run organizations. These days into the second, third, in some cases beyond the next generations in 1974, felt that they needed to level the playing field with some of their larger public competitors. And so they, they wanted to play bigger, so they figured the only way we can play bigger. Is to band together the old African proverb. if you wanna go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. These these entrepreneurs wanted to go far so they got together and the markets obviously have evolved over the years and AIC C'S Mission today. Is basically ensuring that our members still privately held companies and not just in corrugated as they were in 1974, but now in folding carton and rigid box as well, plus their suppliers. Our mission today is basically to ensure their success. We primarily do that by education. Programming as well as networking opportunities, getting people together and talking, because it's a, because they're privately held companies, they can speak fairly openly. They don't go everywhere with their attorneys and they don't have to worry about their comments moving things in a big way on Wall Street and things like that. But it's it's a very open and engaging and association of box makers and their suppliers and A I C C. Today's educating them, which leads us to what we're doing with the program in May, which we call AIC C'S Packaging experience. It's AIC C'S Education programming is very broad. We do webinars. We've got Packaging University, which is our online school, which has over 100 courses in varying disciplines for people in corrugated folding cart and rigid boxes. And about 25% or 30% of those online courses are available in Spanish now too, which is the primary language of a lot of people who are working in the industry. So we wanna make sure that we're educating in a language that people can understand. But what we do with the packaging experience each year is it's a deep dive on a particular topic. The original one was a digital experience, digital. This was back in 2000. 2019, where we digital we basically talked about digital printing and what it means. The following year we did a deep dive on e-commerce, which is which was almost prescient because e-commerce became Yeah. So people, to so many people that were locked down for so long, but an important discussion. Yeah. That was in February of 2020, right before e-commerce became. Vital to everyone that hadn't really used it yet. And now e-commerce is is indispensable and this this packaging experience is really which is coming up in May 23rd and 24th. What do customers want and box makers. Need to speak the customer's language, need to understand what customers want, and we know that their customers are going in new directions as driven by brand owners and how they want a message to consumers, what consumers expectations are. And and that takes us to what do customers want and how do we reach customers Being we, meaning the members. I know I know that we're gonna have. You're gonna play a big role in it. Some guy named Cory Connors is gonna be there. He's gonna, he's gonna talk about how to access your customers through social media, for example. And that's what we're doing here. And we, there, it's a real old school industry, Cory and we need to, in, in some cases, our members are out front. They're very entrepreneurial, they're very, there's a group of early adopters, but there's a larger number that are, let's be very conservative. Let's wait and see. And we wanna make sure that our members have every. Educational opportunity to know what the future holds. So we've brought together for the program in May. We've brought together brand owners, we've brought together industry experts, we've brought together educators to talk about ways that the market and approaches to the market are evolving. Yes. And I know near and dear to your heart is sustainability and we think that sustainability is a huge opportunity for our members in terms of going to market. Yeah. Because we know that brand owners and box buyers, are all working to be more and more sustainable in their own products, which means that the products that are delivering the products, yeah. The box in this case has to also fall into line with the story. The good news is of course, that box makers have a great story to tell, right? They're already working with the most sustainable material on the. And but working with that most sustainable material on the planet alone isn't enough. It's it's how to keep the story going, how to frame the story for what the consumer's goals are, how to talk about sustainability, how to educate their customers about sustainability, cuz not everybody. Just not all box makers are there with the story, even though they know they have a good one and are proud of it, their customers aren't all there. So how do you educate them and how do you make them more aware of all of the opportunities that the box offers?

Cory Connors: 9:01

Yes very true. Very well said. It's easy to rest on our laurels as corrugated manufacturers. Aurora is a part of this, A I C organization, the company I work for, and honored to be a member now. It's super simple to just say, oh, we make corrugated, that's sustainable. So we're good. Let's move on to the next thing. There are so many nuances and so many things that a manufacturer of corrugated or other packaging materials, like you said, Can do to be even more sustainable. We're looking at programs for recycling and all kinds of things to reduce waste and set up times and all these things to reduce the amount of materials that we need and to reduce the amount of material that the consumer receive. That is such a key to this whole thing is if you don't, I just got a package from Amazon that was a box inside of a box and it just, it's so maddening when it the, it's simple. All they had to do was just use the one box, and yet their automated system put it in another box and just, it's frustrating and these are the kinds of things we wanna talk about at the A I C event. Adam Peek and I will be MCing the event and speaking and really excited to, to be a part of it. Thanks again for inviting us for this.

Mike D'Angelo: 10:16

We know that you guys are paying attention and the folks that are paying attention have a lot of information to share, and that's the whole point of experiences to, to pick a topic in this case. Get closer to customers, educate customers better. And the way to do that is to get together we'll probably pull in a couple of hundred people and have a very intense discussion and it goes bang. Everybody's on the program for about a half an hour. There are gonna be a couple of workshops. There's a lot of great ideas that come out of this. Experience is always one of aic c's more popular. Educational events. And the way to do it we're gonna be in Chicago right near O'Hare, so it's easy for everybody to get there, get in and get out. So we're trying to make it as accessible as we can so that there can be as many participants as possible and everybody walks out with, we like to say one of the old I C C about, we want somebody to walk away with one really good idea. I think for an experience, our expectation is higher than that. We want them to walk out with several good ideas. Yeah. All we need to them becoming even more successful in their evolution and growth as a vital supplier to their customers.

Cory Connors: 11:21

Very well said. And they've been through a lot. As manufacturers, these last several years with the pandemic, it was all hands on deck. Make as much as you can, as fast as you can, and then all of a sudden things are back to where they were. And I think the people that were able to scale up without. Spending billions of dollars and just make their equipment more efficient. We'll come back to this and say, okay, now we know how to do that. Here's the ways we can invest. And they'll, like you said, they're gonna talk to each other and help each other out. Believe it or not, a lot of people don't understand this about packaging. We help each other. And we talk to each other about, Hey, this worked, this didn't work. Don't do that. Try this, have you heard of this kind of equipment? Would you agree? It's a very helpful organization. It's,

Mike D'Angelo: 12:14

it's really incredible to me how helpful folks are. Even bitter competitors Yeah. Will help each other out for the right circumstances. When the pandemic hit A I C basically had a weekly member. Webinar where, everybody was hit with this thing and knew nothing right about it. So we got every, we had 200, 300 members on a webinar where people would just talk about what they were frustrated by, what they think they were doing that worked, some things that they did that didn't work. So please don't go down that road. It was. Really gratifying because you're talking about an industry that really had to rise to the occasion. Everything stopped and then all of a sudden it was like no, everything's gotta get going again in some cases. And box makers were obviously a vital industry to get things going again. So these folks were working and people were working in the plant. They were showing up for their jobs. And, The industry was already pre pandemic, saddled with, a manpower shortage because it's manufacturing. So it's always difficult to get people to, to come into manufacturing spaces and work. So they were already up against it. Then the pandemic comes there, we're busier than they'd ever been. Fewer people than they'd ever had. They had to get more efficient. They had to get smarter about the way they were approaching the markets. They all did, but they all did it together. They all did it talking to one another. We were pleased to facilitate that. But it was really something special to see and it holds, that was the hallmark of AIC Pro AIC C programming, pre pandemic. And it's been the a I C. For programming coming out of the pandemic with all the things that we learned too about, using technology like we're talking about here. We weren't taking a whole lot of Zoom calls before the pandemic. And now we're finding that the, some of the Zoom and webinar opportunities hurt some of our in-person seminars. Experience is probably too big an event. When we do these, when we do one-offs people are saying, why aren't you doing that, via Zoom Now, why do I have. Put my people on a plane and spend time away from the plant. And when you're saddled with manpower issues as they are, it's, we've gotta evolve too. So we are, but the experience is the only way to do an experience is to do it. Face to face, everybody's lining up looking at the, because you're gonna do your thing, Adam's gonna do his thing. And most of your good work, as great as you're gonna be on the stage, most of your good work, is gonna be when you're sitting at the, in the bar or when you're down in the crowd on a break or having a cup of coffee or having breakfast with somebody. Yeah. People just go deeper, right? So we want to get everybody there, get 'em together, get the topics on the table, and let all of the experts that are gonna be there, and it's a lengthy group of people work their

Cory Connors: 15:00

magic. I agree. When I attend these events, oftentimes it will be frustrating because the person that's up on the stage disappears afterwards, and that's, not by design, not intentional, but there's no set part-time for us to get to talk to that person in further, discussions and I think what you and your team have done with this event. Set aside time for all speakers to be available, for attendees to have a one-on-one audience with. And I think that's so valuable. And I important in this kind of environment because. People are a little nervous, especially about social media. Like my topic and Adam's gonna be talking about Blue Ocean and different ways to sell and really exciting things. We've got Kate and Jonathan Nazaro from Dip Already, which is, this is This is a, the kind of thing that maybe a lot of these attendees have never seen before or even talked about. They we're hoping, yeah. I say TikTok to the owner of a, a mill, a corrugated mill. And they say what? I'm like, get outta here with that. But what if we could do this together? What if we could make a real impact on your business as a

Mike D'Angelo: 16:12

team? I started getting excited about the experience with TN Pyle, who is our director of education. And Taryn and when she gets enthusiastic it's difficult not to, it's, but when she, and I think she learned this from you where she she said, where do you think most people get their information from online? And I of course went with the knee-jerk reaction. And I said, Google, right? And she. It was so quick to pounce and say, no, you're wrong. Yeah. And and when I heard it was TikTok, it was like, it was stunning to. Yeah, because I don't think of TikTok as an information generator, but I've since learned why and how it, it is what it is. It's not, I'm not watching TikTok for dance videos, so that's what I thought TikTok was, I'm still not watching it for dance videos, but I'm checking it out for other things because there's a lot that you can learn.

Cory Connors: 16:58

People millennials have taken over the show there and they now it's their number one search engine for information, which is taken over Google, which is absolutely amazing. And. Proves the point that people like Adam Peak and myself are able to have followings on TikTok that are actually interested in sustainable packaging and recycling and all these things that we're talking about. So very true, Michael. the

Mike D'Angelo: 17:27

data backs you up, Corey, because digital 360 I saw a report from them the other day that says that millennials Basically responsible for about 56% of B2B transactions. Wow. And they prefer to use a direct internet type buying experience as opposed to having the salesperson come in and take the time to make the pitch. They're, up to certain dollar thresholds. Most millennials are comfortable making a B2B buy. In the hundreds of thousands of dollars now without actually seeing a human from the company that they're transacting business with. Or if they do see a human, it's like you and I are seeing each other right now rather than ushering he or her into the office.

Cory Connors: 18:10

Things are changing and it's quick, and it's going to be even faster. I remember when I started in sales 21 years ago, my boss said, the only thing you can count on is change . And I said, okay. So that's been my mindset this whole time is adapt, learn, get ahead of it, figure it out before other people do so I can be a, an advocate and a real help. For the industry, for the company I work for. But

Mike D'Angelo: 18:36

yeah, this is my sales career goes back a lot more than yours does. And I remember the cartoon that kind of summed up where I was at early in my career, and it was of a spiffy, well-dressed guy in a suit standing there outside of a door. And he was thinking to himself, he said, okay, I've got a shoe shine and a head full of technical information. I'm ready. Yeah. And. That still works sometimes, but not all the time. And then to support what you were saying about adaptability, there was a sales leader in, at Bob's back in the eighties that had a a picture of a Bronte sous. In his office. That said, in a changing world, if you are not adaptable, you will disappear.

Cory Connors: 19:14

Yeah, that's it. We have to be open to new ideas and I think that's what, why this this event is so critical and it's so appropriately named as an experience and Yeah, so I'm really excited about it. Anything else that we need to know about it? How do we sign up?

Mike D'Angelo: 19:30

The nuns at my grammar school wouldn't be happy with the way we've dropped the e off experience. And it's an X for experience, right? Way to reach us, AIC c box.org/experience with an x. Experience that'll take you to a website that gives you everything you need to know and gives you the ability to register for the event as well.

Cory Connors: 19:54

And if you're listening and you decide to sign up we'll be excited to see you there. I'll meet you in person. I think it's gonna be an awesome

Mike D'Angelo: 20:00

show. You'll be there. I'll be there. It'll be a cast of thousands.

Cory Connors: 20:04

Thank you so much, Mike. We really appreciate it. Anything else that you wanted to talk about that we didn't get to yet?

Mike D'Angelo: 20:09

Again, A I C is is basically invested in your business to make it successful. Our motto is, when you invest and engage A I C delivers success. Please also check out AIC c@aiccbox.org and you will see the full breadth of programs that AIC C has to offer to our members. And if you're not a member and you are a converter, In the industry or a supplier to the industry, paper-based packaging, check out AIC c box.org. And if you'd like to speak to me about joining AIC C, you can reach me at MD angello@aiccbox.org.

Cory Connors: 20:46

Thank you, sir. I'll put that all on the show notes so people can just click on it. We really appreciate your time, Mike, It's always good

Mike D'Angelo: 20:52

to see and be with you. Thank you so much for making your platform available to us, and thank you so much for your support of A I C and the experience.

Cory Connors: 21:00

Thank you, sir. And if you're listening, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the next episode, and stay tuned for more. Thank you.