Schedule
Events listed will take place at the Kimpton Overland Hotel Ballroom unless otherwise noted. Titles, descriptions, and speakers are subject to change.
Wednesday, September 30
FIRST Live Level 1
Add on option available during registration process
Networking Lunch
Session to be Confirmed
Beyond Frequency and Density: Quantifying the Effect of Microcell Surface Engineering on Ink Laydown Performance
This session presents a collaborative technical effort by FTA members in partnership with the Flexo Xperience Center in Atlanta.
Building on a live technology demonstration conducted the previous day at the FXC, presenters will examine how microcell surface structures, anilox volumes, and different ink formulations influence ink transfer, laydown quality, and surface uniformity in wide-web flexographic printing.
Measured microcell and anilox characteristics will be compared with actual print results to explore whether print-quality evaluation should move beyond conventional CIELAB and SID measurements. The discussion will consider whether future quality-control methods should incorporate three-dimensional volumetric measurements of both microcell and anilox structures, together with advanced analysis of physical ink laydown and pigment-particle characteristics.
This session will showcase the participating technologies and measurement approaches while helping establish a foundation for future structured research into microcell surface engineering, anilox interaction, ink formulation, and predictable print performance.The one-hour session will include approximately 45 minutes of focused technical presentations followed by 15 minutes of open audience discussion. This interactive format will provide direct access to experienced microcell practitioners and solution providers, as well as the software and hardware developers advancing these emerging measurement technologies.
Speakers
Marek Skrzynski of CSW
Born and educated in Poland, Marek brings over three decades of packaging expertise, fueled by a passion for innovation in color management and workflow automation. He has furthered his professional education at Pratt Institute Manhattan, Clemson University, and most recently, MIT in Boston. Currently, Marek serves as the VP of Technology & Innovation at CSW, Inc. in Ludlow, MA. Since 1999, he has been a frequent speaker at academic and industry events, presenting on cutting-edge topics such as Advanced Color Reproduction, Generative AI, Expanded Color Gamut Printing, Workflow Automation and 3D CGI Visualization. Marek is driven to inspire others to embrace technical progress and push the boundaries of what’s possible in Flexo printing. For inquiries please contact him at: [email protected]
Brent Zurcher of Microdynamics
Brent Zurcher, Director of Operations at MicroDynamics, has led efforts in product development and customer success for 10 years at MicroDynamics and its sister companies. Brent serves in a central role between the engineering team and sales/support teams to ensure MicroDynamics measurement systems have their maximum impact helping cylinder manufacturers and converters create quality products and improve their efficiency. Brent is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree in Biological Engineering, and resides in the Atlanta area.
Lukas Pescoller of Peret
Lukas is the founder of PERET and a pioneer in print quality measurement technology with more than 30 years of experience in the printing industry. After earning a degree in Technical Computer Science from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), he worked at the university, Siemens, and the Alcatel-Elin Research Center before joining Viptronic in Italy as a Development Engineer. In 1998, he introduced the Vipflex flexographic plate measurement system, marketed in the United States as Betaflex. He subsequently led Viptronic through its acquisition by GretagMacbeth and later X-Rite, where he oversaw the development of innovative measurement solutions, including the iCPlate offset plate measurement system. In 2009, Lukas founded PERET, where he continues to drive innovation in print inspection and quality control. Since the launch of the FLEX3PRO at IPEX 2010, PERET has developed advanced measurement systems for flexographic plates, Braille dots, crease lines, embossed features, corrugated board quality, and fluorescent inks. The current FLEX4PRO expandes the analysis to surface structure and is being used worldwide to analyze and optimize flexographic print performance. As a speaker, Lukas demonstrates how print quality can be translated into objective, measurable metrics. Through real-world print trials analyzed with the FLEX4PRO, he shows how measurement data can improve process stability, print consistency, and production quality.
Networking Break
Design of Experiments: Better Decisions Through Structured Testing
Flexographic processes involve many interconnected variables, making it difficult to determine which changes truly improve performance. In this session, FQC Chair Catherine Haynes will introduce Design of Experiments (DOE), a structured approach for evaluating multiple process factors, identifying meaningful interactions and reaching statistically sound conclusions with fewer experimental runs.
Using practical flexographic examples — including ink viscosity, anilox volume and solid ink density — Catherine will explain why changing one factor at a time can overlook important relationships between variables. Attendees will receive an accessible overview of full and fractional factorial designs, screening experiments and response surface analysis, along with the steps needed to define a problem, establish measurable objectives, collect useful data and interpret the results.
Whether you are planning an FQC research project or troubleshooting a process in your own operation, this session will demonstrate how DOE can make experimentation more efficient, focused and useful for data-driven decision-making
Speakers
Catherine Haynes
Catherine Haynes is the VP of Strategic Iniatives for All Printing Resources. She has more than 28 years of experience in the printing industry, has been a certified G7 Expert for over 15 years, and is a certified FTA Implementation Specialist. At APR she assists sales technicians as a technical representative for various customer projects related to training, characterizations, prepress and pressroom assessments, color management, digital workflows, platemaking and implementation or expansion of in-house prepress capabilities. She holds positions as FQC Chair, Women of Flexo Co-Chair, and FTA Board member. She also coordinates and conducts industry online and in-person training programs and has been a regular speaker at FTA, Clemson, TLMI, FLAG and other industry events.
Help Shape the Future of FQC Research
What technical challenges should the Flexographic Quality Consortium investigate next? In this interactive session, the FQC Committee will present potential research projects submitted by FTA members for consideration in 2027.
Attendees will learn about each proposed project, the industry need it addresses and the knowledge it could contribute to the flexographic community. The audience will then have the opportunity to vote on the projects they believe should receive priority.
This session gives FTA members a direct voice in shaping the FQC research agenda and helps ensure future projects focus on practical, relevant challenges facing today’s flexographic industry.
FQC New Project Voting and Submission
Happy Hour
Thursday, October 1
2026 FTA Annual Member Meeting
Keynote: The Coca Cola Company
FTA’s FIRST Level One Training is the ultimate launchpad for entry-level printers, offering a unique opportunity to earn your professional credentials on-site at the FTA Technical Conference. By completing this comprehensive certification during the event, you’ll instantly elevate your professional profile, gaining essential technical knowledge and fundamental skills that will transform you into a confident, industry-ready print expert with a valuable credential to showcase your commitment to excellence.
Speakers
Nichole Williams
Nichole Williams is Senior Director II of MarTech Operations & Enablement at The Coca Cola Company, where she leads the design and activation of a future ready, AI powered marketing technology ecosystem for North America. With more than 12 years of experience across marketing and commercial operations, Nichole specializes in translating strategy into scalable, tech enabled ways of working that drive executional speed, efficiency, and measurable business impact. In her role, Nichole partners across Marketing, Studio X, agencies, and the broader MarTech network to embed AI, automation, and data driven workflows into planning, campaign execution, and performance management. Previously, she served as Chief of Staff to the North America CMO and led Marketing Operations & Capabilities, driving enterprise planning, operational transformation, and AI enabled innovation.
Patrick Welsh
Patrick leads end‑to‑end design across the full portfolio of brands at The Coca‑Cola Company. With more than 20 years of design leadership experience, his career spans both agency and client‑side roles. He has partnered with global brands at General Mills, Kraft Heinz, ConAgra, and 3M, and has led design teams at Nestlé, 3M/Imation, and Land O’Lakes, Inc.
AI in Action: Teaching Flexo Concepts and Making Data Easier to See
Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a practical tool for educators, trainers and technical teams looking to explain complex concepts and make data more useful. In this session, Bobby Congdon of Clemson University will explore real-world ways AI can support flexographic education and technical analysis.
Through examples such as teaching aids for LPI, visualizing color gamut profiles and evaluating dE on spot colors, attendees will see how AI can help simplify technical topics, improve understanding and create new ways to interact with flexo data. This session will focus less on AI theory and more on practical applications that can help printers, educators and technical professionals communicate ideas more clearly and make data easier to interpret.
To engage with the audience there will be an opportunity to develop a tool through live discussion with Bobby during the presentation.
Speakers
Bobby Congdon
Bobby Congdon is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Graphic Communications Department at Clemson University, where he teaches the Inks and Substrates course, as well as manages the student internship program. He also directs the STRIPE virtual flexo press simulator program, which aims to provide highly accessible print training to students and professionals. Previously, he was the Assistant Director at the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics at Clemson University, managing a small but capable team providing world class training, research and services to the printing and packaging industry.
Networking Break
Sponsored by APR
The Mounting Room: The Most Under-Measured Cost Center in Flexible Packaging
Between December 2025 and April 2026, we conducted onsite audits at three North American wide-web flexographic plants — different sizes, different equipment configurations, different corporate structures. We found the same five operational patterns at every site. This session walks through those patterns and the financial picture behind them: a recoverable annual loss of $140,000 to $350,000 per plant on a conservative, source-tagged basis, before counting the plant-specific upside available when underutilized capital equipment is restored to service.
The mounting room sits between prepress and press, and it has been treated historically as a support function rather than a constraint on throughput. This session makes the case, with field evidence, that the category deserves the same measurement discipline plants already apply to press utilization. Attendees will leave with a five-pattern diagnostic framework, a source-tagging methodology they can apply to their own operations, and a 25-question self-assessment they can run the week they get home — no outside auditor required.
Speakers
James Lawlor
Jim Lawlor has spent 30 years in prepress automation and workflow development — CTP at Screen USA and Agfa, digital imaging at FujiFilm and HP, and workflow software at Hybrid Software, EFI, and Arden Software. In 2019 he founded Flexopodz to bring that same automation discipline to the one part of the plant it never reached: the mounting and plate room. His session draws on three decades of workflow deployments and on findings from his own field research, published as The Mounting Room Report, Volume 1.
Networking Lunch
FTA’s FIRST Level One Training is the ultimate launchpad for entry-level printers, offering a unique opportunity to earn your professional credentials on-site at the FTA Technical Conference. By completing this comprehensive certification during the event, you’ll instantly elevate your professional profile, gaining essential technical knowledge and fundamental skills that will transform you into a confident, industry-ready print expert with a valuable credential to showcase your commitment to excellence.
Driving printer efficiency & profitability through data driven process optimization
The packaging industry is under constant pressure to improve quality, lower costs, increase efficiency – yet many of the competing requests are making it more difficult for printers to satisfy brand needs.
There is also a great deal of available data to help guide printers to make faster decisions, tools to boost process optimization, multiple sources to include, but in many cases, there is too much data, or contradicting data, that drive poor decisions or even worse no decisions at all.
This presentation will look at some of the issues facing printers today, what are the bigger influences on a flexo press, various sources, and types of data, plus ways to use it to make smarter and quicker choices. A case study based on a European packaging printer will show the importance of addressing the fundamentals and how different types of data can help drive greater OEE and profitability for all involved.
Attendees will get a greater understanding of where process fundamentals and data can assist them, how to avoid errors, where automation in data analysis can improve efficiency, and gain significant dollars in cost and time savings through data driven optimization in the packaging process.
Speakers
John Anderson
Dr. John Anderson is a packaging and print technology executive with nearly 30 years of experience in flexographic, offset, and gravure printing. A Mechanical Engineering graduate of Swansea University with a Ph.D. in screen printing, he has built a career advancing print technology, process optimization, and operational excellence.After serving with EFTA and FTA and spending more than 18 years with Kodak/Miraclon driving flexographic innovation, John joined Co-efficient in May 2026, a packaging consulting business as Operations Director for North America. He partners with printers and brands to improve performance through data-driven process optimization, enhanced OEE, and sustainable, profitable growth.
SHOWDOWN: Human Experts vs AI
Bring your toughest flexo questions to the final session of the FTA Technical Conference. Throughout the event, attendees will be invited to submit technical questions through the conference question box. In this fast-paced closing session, a panel of industry experts will tackle those questions live.
To add a new twist, the experts will also use an AI system to generate responses to selected questions, then compare the AI’s answer with their own real-world experience. Where does AI get it right? Where does it miss the nuance of pressroom reality, materials, process control, troubleshooting, or production decision-making?
This interactive 30-minute session will blend practical technical insight, expert discussion, and a look at how emerging tools like AI may support—but not replace—the knowledge of experienced flexographic professionals.
Speakers
Mark R. Mazur
Mark R. Mazur received a BS in chemistry from the State University of New York at Albany in 1978, a Ph. D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from Yale University in 1982 and an MBA from Rutgers University in 1987. Mark worked for DuPont for 32 years. During his career at DuPont, he had a variety of assignments, including product management, proofing, electroless plating, solid modeling and business analysis. Mark is a frequent speaker at industry events. In 2002 he received the FTA Presidents award, was co-chair of the 2008 FTA Forum in Dallas, served as chair of the FIRST Committee, participated in the Excellence in Flexography Awards Competition and was the 2009 Flexographic Technical Association Hall of Fame Inductee.
Mark Samworth
Mark began his career with DuPont where he held numerous positions in the areas of flexographic plates and electronic imaging. He joined Esko in 1997 and worked a variety of roles related to the development, marketing, and industry support of flexo color and imaging products. He holds 11 patents in digital imaging – including FlexoCal, Hybrid Screening, Plate Cell Patterning, Concentric Screening, PressSync, and Equinox Expanded Color Gamut (ECG) technology. Mark has authored numerous articles in the industry’s major trade publications and presented many papers at the industry’s major trade forums. He’s been voted “best speaker” at many Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) events. In May of 2011, at the age of 49, Mark was inducted as the 49th member of the FTA Hall of Fame.
Catherine Haynes
Catherine Haynes is the VP of Strategic Iniatives for All Printing Resources. She has more than 28 years of experience in the printing industry, has been a certified G7 Expert for over 15 years, and is a certified FTA Implementation Specialist. At APR she assists sales technicians as a technical representative for various customer projects related to training, characterizations, prepress and pressroom assessments, color management, digital workflows, platemaking and implementation or expansion of in-house prepress capabilities. She holds positions as FQC Chair, Women of Flexo Co-Chair, and FTA Board member. She also coordinates and conducts industry online and in-person training programs and has been a regular speaker at FTA, Clemson, TLMI, FLAG and other industry events.
Closing
FTA’s FIRST Level One Training is the ultimate launchpad for entry-level printers, offering a unique opportunity to earn your professional credentials on-site at the FTA Technical Conference. By completing this comprehensive certification during the event, you’ll instantly elevate your professional profile, gaining essential technical knowledge and fundamental skills that will transform you into a confident, industry-ready print expert with a valuable credential to showcase your commitment to excellence.
