This was my first trip away from the theoretical world and so I was very excited and curious to explore. My classmates and a faculty member were part of this excursion trip and we decided to have fun while learning.

The real world: truly aspirational
The real world is very different, extremely complex but quite fascinating at the same time. The engineering and technology marvels on display at the show raised our curiosity factor and quite naturally, we had more questions.

Initially, nervous with awe but slowly gaining courage, we visited the stall one by one and started bombarding our queries at the company representatives. The technical staffs, who were managing their counters, were professional and friendly. They did not differentiate us as students from their real customers and in fact went to great lengths to explain their product features and the technology behind it.

All the time, we tried to co-relate what we learnt in the classrooms and it was a kind of bridging of sorts - between classroom learning and the real world. 

Impressive show: an endearing experience
Expo was an incredible assortment of scale, innovation, technology, logistics, start-ups and small-medium companies competing with big brands etc, but all working together with one common objective – ‘To make a better world’.

Every single counter that we visited put up an impressive show. For want of space, just sharing one such interesting example:

The HP stall
The HP showcased the Indigo WS6800 digital press, a unique solution allowing convertors to produce flexible packaging, folding cartons and labels etc on any substrate. One of its impressive feature was that it uses closed loop control, the spectrometer used in the press to eliminate the need for manual colour calibrations and adjustments. It offers higher press output and reduced costs.

If there was one message from the participant companies that resonated at the Expo, it had to be: “Your challenges… Our inspiration”

The winner takes it all
The LMAI Awards function was held at Hotel Le Meridian. The evening started with a curtain raising program followed by companies receiving the prestigious awards in their respective categories.

It gave us an opportunity to interact with the industry best and there were many learnings and insights that we are still trying to assimilate and put together. The event concluded with grace, fun, dance and dinner and believe me, this was one evening that we did not want to end. But then, all good things have to come to an end and we had to return to our classrooms as well.

We went back truly inspired and with a dream - That we will be there on the dais receiving the honors someday.

The author is a printing and packaging engineering student at SIES Graduate School of Technology, Nerul, Navi Mumbai