Spec-First. AI-Powered. See It Live at Pack Expo 2026.

Pack Expo is back in Chicago, October 18–21 at McCormick Place, and Specright will be there. This year, we anticipate the conversations will be less about whether AI will change packaging and product development and more about which brands are ready for it.

Our point of view hasn’t changed: AI only works when it’s built on the right data. Packaging is the DNA of your product, yet most teams still manage packaging specs in spreadsheets, PDFs, and shared drives. That leads to errors, rework, and compliance risk, and it leaves AI without anything useful to work with.

At Pack Expo, we’ll show what changes when your specifications are structured, connected, and intelligent. Here’s where to find us.

Visit Us at Booth LU-7847

Stop by Booth LU-7847 in Lakeside Upper Hall to see Specright’s AI platform for specifications, packaging, and products in action. In about 15 minutes, our team can walk you through how leading brands use specification data to innovate faster, optimize costs, monitor compliance, and improve sustainability. You’ll leave with some great swag, too.

What you’ll see at the booth:

• Our Specification Data Management™ (SDM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions. How digitizing packaging and product specs removes manual data entry and duplicate work, improves traceability, connects packaging, R&D and suppliers in one place, and gives your PLM a foundation that works from day one. 
• Specright AI Assistant. Ask questions in everyday language about your packaging, formulas or BOMs and get instant answers that link back to the original source record.
• Packaging Selection Agent. Describe what you need like “find me a bio-based alternative to this cap ” and get real materials and suppliers ranked by cost, performance, sustainability and how close they are to you.
• Supplier Network. A way to gather supplier data. Suppliers can send information in any format they already use. AI takes care of mapping, validating and translating it all so it fits into your system.
• EPR and PPWR readiness. See how structured packaging data helps you meet reporting rules with confidence even when time is short.

Whether you’re a packaging engineer, an R&D leader, or on the sustainability, regulatory, or IT team, we’ll meet you where you are.

Plan Your Visit to Booth LU-7847

Catch Us on the Innovation Stages

Specright’s industry experts are presenting three sessions across the duration of the show. Check out a preview of each topic to better plan your schedule while at the show. 

The Packaging Engineer of 2030 Doesn’t Search for Specs. They Ask for Them.

Monday, October 19 | 12:30–1:00 PM | Innovation Stage 3 (N-4585), North Hall

Speakers: Karthik Rajagopal, Chief Product Officer, Specright; Sunitha Nair, Partner Implementation Consultant, Specright, and former packaging engineer

Many packaging engineers spend a surprising amount of time on work that isn’t engineering: hunting for the latest spec version, re-entering supplier data into various systems, rebuilding BOMs from scratch. That isn’t an engineering problem. It’s a data problem.

Karthik and Sunitha will show what packaging development looks like when engineers work from a single, living specification record. AI brings up material history, flags compliance conflicts in real time, suggests alternatives based on cost or sustainability, and generates documentation automatically.

You’ll learn: How AI gives packaging engineers their time back, and why the brands building this way today will be hard to catch tomorrow.

Add to your Pack Expo schedule →

From Ideation to Store Shelf: How AI Is Collapsing the Product Lifecycle

Tuesday, October 20 | 10:00–10:30 AM | Food & Beverage Processing Innovation Stage (LU-7764), Lakeside Upper Hall

Speakers: Mike Boese, CEO, Specright; Linda Garbis, Lead Sales Engineer, Specright, and former packaging engineer

What if you could take a product from concept to retail-ready in a fraction of the time it takes today? Mike and Linda will walk through a live product launch, from ideation through validated formulas, supplier collaboration, and global compliance, all powered by AI. Drawing from her experience, Linda will share how to remove spec bottlenecks across complex, multi-supplier packaging operations.

You’ll learn: How spec-first technology is shrinking approval cycles from weeks to days, cutting time-to-lab, and making proactive EPR and sustainability reporting possible. This is happening now, not someday.

(Show tip: This stage is in the same hall as our booth. Come see us at LU-7847 right after and reduce the amount of steps you have to take around McCormick Place!)

Add to your Pack Expo schedule →

Design for Compliance: How Spec-First Packaging Reduces EPR Fees and Regulatory Risk Before Products Launch

Tuesday, October 20 | 3:00–3:30 PM | Innovation Stage 1 (N-4570), North Hall

Speakers: Matthew Wright, Founder & Executive Chairman, Specright; Matt Swenson, Board Member, Institute of Packaging Professionals, and Executive Committee member, Sustainable Packaging Coalition

EPR programs don’t just require compliance. They reward it. Under fee structures in Oregon, California, and Europe’s PPWR, brands with more recyclable, lower-impact packaging pay significantly less. Getting those savings depends on making the right design decisions early, with the right data.

Matthew and Matt will make the case for building compliance logic directly into the specification and development process. That way, packaging is designed from day one for recyclability, recycled-content targets, and material reduction, instead of being fixed after regulators ask.

You’ll learn: Why shifting compliance from reactive to proactive can lower EPR fees and turn regulation into a way to optimize costs. Bring your R&D, packaging, and sustainability teams. This one’s for all of them.

Add to your Pack Expo schedule →

Haven’t Registered Yet? Your Pass Is on Us.

Use Specright’s registration page to get complimentary Pack Expo passes for you and your team.

Claim Your Free Pass

See You in Chicago

When you get the spec right, the rest follows. Come see how at Booth LU-7847. Bring your toughest packaging data questions, and we’ll show you what’s possible when intelligence starts with the spec.