How Packaging Engineers Can Unlock AI’s Superpowers

Veteran packaging journalist Lisa McTigue Pierce is Executive Editor of Packaging Digest, which has been “The Voice of the Packaging Community” since 1963. She’s been a packaging media journalist since 1982 and tracks emerging trends, new technologies, and best practices across a spectrum of markets for the publication’s global community. Reach her at [email protected] or 630-272-1774.

Lisa McTigue Pierce, Executive Editor of Packaging Digest, has been writing about packaging since 1982, more than four decades. Over the years, she has looked at packaging developments from various perspectives, including for brand owners, packaging material converters, and consumers.

Her superpower is identifying emerging market trends that often transform packaging departments. She does this by keeping up with current hot topics — like extended producer responsibility (EPR) and ecommerce — and new technologies — like artificial intelligence (AI) and digitization.

Over the years, Pierce has stayed intimately involved and active in the packaging and media markets:

She’s a member of several packaging-related trade associations, including the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP). She served on the IoPP Chicago Chapter Board in various capacities from April 2000 to June 2006. She also served as Group Leader for the Cataloging Group of the IoPP Sustainable Packaging Task Force for a year.

Pierce has been a member of the global International Packaging Press Organisation (IPPO) since 1999. She has served on the Board twice. First as Vice President from May 2017 to May 2023; and currently as Secretary General (May 2023 – Present). As Secretary General, Pierce created the IPPO Communique, a monthly newsletter for the more than 70 IPPO members around the world.

Additionally, she has served in several capacities at the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE): first as National Treasurer in 1997/98 and then as President of the Chicago Chapter in 1998/99.

Pierce has been a featured speaker at many packaging events, including for the Closure and Container Manufacturer’s Association; the Institute of Packaging Professionals; PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies; and the Rigid Plastics Packaging Institute, which is now part of PLASTICS.

She also speaks and moderates often for Informa’s on-site educational programs and conferences connected to its regional packaging events, including the renamed MD&M West-Packaging, MD&M East-Packaging, and MD&M Midwest (previously WestPack, EastPack, and MinnPack).

Over the course of her career, Pierce has worked as a packaging media journalist for several companies: Cahners Publishing Co. (acquired by Reed International, which is now RELX), Independent Publishing, Stagnito Communications, MWC Co., Ascend Media Co., BNP Media, UBM, and her current employer Informa.

Pierce started her packaging media career in 1982 as a sales secretary for Package Engineering magazine, published by Cahners Publishing Co., the leading North American business-to-business publisher at the time. The publication subsequently changed its name to Packaging. Pierce was promoted to assistant editor within a year and earned seven promotions during her 11 years there.

She resigned as Managing Editor of Packaging to lead Food & Drug Packaging as its Editor when that magazine was bought by Independent Publishing in 1993. She was promoted to Editor-in-Chief in 1997 and took on the added role of Editorial Director for sister publication Flexible Packaging in 2008 (the same year that Food & Drug Packaging changed its name to Food & Beverage Packaging). As content leader for Flexible Packaging, Pierce shared insights from the packaging converter and materials suppliers’ perspective.

Then in July 2009, Pierce ventured into a new realm, helping consumer insights leader Iconoculture launch its Global Packaging Advisory Service. Iconoculture was acquired by CEB in 2010, which was then bought by Gartner in 2017. During her 15-month stay at Iconoculture, she wrote hundreds of articles that gave clients insight into how and why consumer values and macrotrends influence consumers’ packaging preferences across a variety of markets throughout the world.

In 2010, Pierce was recruited to join UBM as Editor of Packaging Digest magazine. UBM was acquired by Informa in 2018. She was then promoted to Executive Editor in 2012, a role she still holds today.

As a journalist, Pierce excels at content management and strategy, interviewing, writing, editing, and video production.

Her high quality standards have earned her several Editorial Excellence awards:

American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) 2004: Regional Silver Award for her May 2023 “Unit-Dose Packaging” report in the Special Section category

ASBPE 2006: Regional Silver Award for her July 2005 opus “Top 200 Packagers” in the Original Research category

ASBPE 2007: National Gold Award for her May 2006 in-depth profile “How Does Kellogg Do It?” in the Individual/Company Profile category

ASBPE 2008: Regional Bronze Award for her October 2007 “Food Packager of the Year: Heinz North America” piece in the Individual/Organization Profile category

Informa Awards 2018: Runner-Up in the Above & Beyond category for developing the 3-day educational program for the Pack Place Theater at EastPack

Her extensive knowledge in various aspects of packaging make her an in-demand judge for packaging competitions. She has served in that capacity for these programs:

Flexible Packaging Association Achievement Awards

National Association of Container Distributors Packaging Awards and

As a subject matter expert in packaging, Pierce has been interviewed by media outlets, including:

The Atlantic, December 2017: “The Secrets That Product Packaging Reveals About Retail”

CNN, June 2020: “The pandemic could have ruined this sustainable business. But instead, it’s expanding nationwide”

Lompoc Record, October 2019: “Can one man bring back reusable packaging?”

Baltimore Sun, (date sometime after 2016): “They’re thinking inside the box”

Pierce is often quoted by other packaging sources:

Sustainable Packaging Podcast, September 2023: “Sustainable Packaging”

The Industrial Packaging Podcast, November 2022: “IPP EP 56: Discussing Sustainable Packaging”

Packaging machinery manufacturer Viking Masek, November 2020: “7 ways COVID-19 is changing the packaging industry”

Pierce was cited as a source for the 2018 report “A Holistic View of the Role of Flexible Packaging in a Sustainable World” prepared by packaging consultancy PTIS for the Flexible Packaging Association

Having covered packaging sustainability in-depth for more than 20 years by the published date, she wrote the chapter But More Isn’t Always Better for “The Future of Packaging: From Linear to Circular” book, created in 2019 by Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle and Loop.

Complimenting her packaging industry expertise is her professional skill as a journalist and business-to-business editor. She wrote the chapter on editorial ethics, Taking the Tough Road, for ASBPE’s 2004 “Best Practices of the Business Press” book.

Connect via LinkedIn: Lisa McTigue PierceFollow her X posts: https://twitter.com/MctiguePierceView her Muck Rack profile: https://muckrack.com/lisa-mctigue-pierce

Anxious to embark on a vocation in writing and publishing (her goal since second grade), Pierce accelerated her high-school education to finish in three years instead of the normal four. After earning an Associate’s degree in English at local community college Moraine Valley, with honors, she received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from Governors State University, a cozy senior college in a south suburb of Chicago, in August of 1982—the same month she started her packaging media career at Cahners Publishing Co.