The 2026 FORUM INFOFLEX brought the flexographic printing community to Milwaukee for four days of technical education, exhibits, networking and association programming designed to help printers respond to faster market demands, shifting workforce needs, and rapid technology change.
Held April 25-29, the 2026 edition delivered a more connected experience where education, networking, and supplier discovery happened under one roof at the Baird Conference Center in downtown Milwaukee.
The educational sessions also represented a shift as more operational and organizational leaders at flexographic printing companies face broader business realities impacting operations. The educational program comprised hybrid production, AI-enabled workflows, data-driven decision-making, makeready, color control, preventive maintenance, anilox management, sustainability, workforce development, and customer-centric leadership. The goal: To deliver insights that empower printing companies to improve speed, quality, repeatability, and customer responsiveness at the same time.
Understanding that education and connection doesn’t start and stop with the show stage. The event also endeavored to create opportunities for printing thought leaders to network and nurture business relationships that encourage peer-to-peer learning that would happen at this year’s event and beyond.
On Saturday evening, FTA hosted a Saturday Night Networking event at X-Golf inside American Family Field, giving attendees a relaxed setting to connect before the formal education program began. The event gave attendees a Milwaukee-specific experience, which provided an ice breaker that helped spark conversations between printers, supplier-partners, and FTA leadership.
Paul Teachout of OMET Americas highlighted that point in closing remarks, describing the Saturday baseball event as a “social gathering to start the week off to build the community.” Teachout noted this type of peer-to-peer connection matters in a technical community because learning experiences need to both inside and outside the session rooms, e.g., during the ride back from an off-site event, in a booth conversation, or over lunch. For printers navigating labor challenges, technology investments, and rising customer expectations, those informal exchanges can result in practical changes on the plant floor.
Technology, AI, Data & Hybrid Printing
If the opening of 2026 FORUM INFOFLEX established the event’s broader purpose, the technology sessions sharpened the business question facing many flexographic printers: How should a manufacturer invest when print technologies, workflow systems, and customer expectations are changing at the same time?
Attendees were encouraged to look at flexographic printing from the viewpoint of a more connected production strategy. By understanding where technologies create value, whether those technologies are artificial intelligence, hybrid and digital printing, or other data-driven prepress and printing solutions, printers can build operations models that are agile, responsive, and drive profitable businesses.
Multiple panel discussions explored how flexographic and digital printing technologies can complement each other. One such session, the Tuesday keynote, Flexo, Hybrid, and Digital: Converging Paths for the Future of Packaging Print, Teachout, who is also the current FTA Board Chair, led a conversation that explored where each technology delivers the greatest value, how integration is reshaping production workflows, and what convergence means for future investment decisions.
The panelists also emphasized that flexographers shouldn’t simply ask if flexography, digital or hybrid printing is “best.” The stronger question is whether a company has the workflow discipline, data visibility and customer mix to make each asset earn its place. In that sense, technology strategy becomes a management discipline.
The session, Printing Smarter with Data, focused on how printing operations generate large amounts of information through press performance, ink usage, inspection systems, and job histories. But print leaders must turn this information into actionable insights that improves workflows, support continuous improvement, and strengthen printer-and-brand relationships through consistent quality.
AI was treated in similarly practical way. The Leveraging AI with CRM, ERP, and EMP for the Future of Packaging session connected artificial intelligence to customer relationships, production, and performance, including predictive analytics, smart scheduling, and dashboards designed to reveal new efficiencies. Event Chair Brad Gasque of DuPont noted how this session delivered practical, industry-relevant advice about building agents in a “really deep dive.”
The Reimagining Flexography with AI and AR session looked more directly as the pressroom, including predictive maintenance, defect detection, AR-assisted training and automated workflows that connect strategy to operations.
Workforce, Leadership & Community
The workforce theme was omnipresent throughout the event, from formal education to networking events and the new FTA Flexo Draft. The Building Pathways for the Flexographer’s Journey session addressed one of the industry’s most urgent constraints: Building and sustaining a skilled workforce as technology evolves and print buyers’ demands accelerate. The session focused on school and trade program partnerships, in-house training, and mentorship as practical solutions to close the talent gap.
Student engagement was one of the most emotional centers of the event. The Phoenix Challenge Competition was celebrated with the week starting with student teams presenting on their yearlong, client-based projects designed to solve real-world business challenges with flexographic printed products. The program continues to give students a way to apply research, problem-solving design and print production skills in a business context, while giving the industry a clearer view of the next generation of talent.
In his closing remarks, FTA President Nathan Ridnouer said, “One of the highlights, we tried to weave into this entire event was that next generation, the students we put on the stage during the first day, the interactions they had. Those are our future FTA members and industry professionals.”
The 2026 edition of FORUM INFOFLEX was packed with such a plethora of insights for the next and current generations of flexo leaders that FLEXO Magazine will continue to cover the event. Look to our next issue of FLEXO Magazine for continued coverage of FORUM INFOFLEX, including additional takeaways printers can use to strengthen their teams, improve performance, and prepare for what comes next.