'We Came Back with Action Items': The TAPPICon Experience for Liberty Paper

Knowledge, new tech, and networking are top-of-mind for the TAPPI volunteers and staff who plan each year's TAPPICon. Yet in an often understaffed and overwhelmed manufacturing sector like forest products, it can be tough to get mill crews away long enough to attend a conference. Which leads us to the most important question:

Is it worth it?

Last year, Liberty Paper's mill in Becker, MN, took full advantage of proximity and sent 24 mill folks into nearby Minneapolis for TAPPICon 2025. The Becker Mill churns out 260,000 tpy of 100 percent recycled paper for boxes; it's a busy facility with a customer list that ranges from local small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

Paper360° Editor Jan Bottiglieri caught up with two of Liberty's 2025 TAPPICon attendees: Tom Murphy, technical services manager; and Nate Manni, process engineer for Liberty's DreamWorks Coating Solutions. Here, they talk about takeaways from participating.

P360°: Tom and Nate, can you tell me a little about Liberty's TAPPICon participation—and your personal experiences?

MURPHY: Usually when we go to TAPPICon we plan to send four or five people and everyone is jockeying to see who can go. Last year, the mill happened to be around an hour from the venue, so the list kept growing. The mill rate helped; sending more people wasn't that much more money. Nate went down early and did the YP events on Saturday and Sunday. A number of our attendees were operators who don't always get a chance to attend; they were walking booth to booth and trying to catch a seminar here or there and they came back with wonderful things to say.

MANNI: At the YP mentorship session, we were able to ask industry veterans questions like "where did you start? Do you have any career pathways, or tricks of the trade? Have you ever had this issue in your career?" That gave me ideas I could bring back to the mill of things we hadn't thought of, from someone who already went through a similar struggle.

MURPHY: I've been in the industry well over 30 years and I've met a lot of people. Being able to network at TAPPICon is unbelievable. Last year I got to touch base with a lot of long-lost friends—and also people I contacted just in the past week about somebody who needed a job.

There's no replacement for that face-to-face interaction! Tom, what are some things your operators learned at TAPPICon?

MURPHY: They learned a lot about new technology, like how AI is changing the world. We came back with action items. We did make some investments after that meeting. We learned about camera technology—high speed cameras that really help mills troubleshoot—and about solving quality issues, which we're also looking into.  

MANNI: We do try to pass along that knowledge value. It wasn't just paper machine specific; we had people from our EHS group too. They were looking at ways to improve and sustain lock out/tag out. Others were learning about sustainability, landfill reduction... we looked at some raggertail shredders that could lower our environmental footprint.

Tom, you mentioned action items. What were some of the things on your "post TAPPICon" list?

MURPHY: We learned about software that can control chemicals and predict paper quality, that can help us proactively make changes to save money. We are in the beginning stages of trialing that technology. We met a lot of folks from ABB in their on-site trailer—that was a big deal to us. They showed our operators the newest steam box technology. Honestly, at the time, we weren't 100 percent interested. But it definitely raised the interest level in replacing the one we have, so we're now looking into a new steam box that controls quality and performance.

We also learned more about water savings. One ESG manager who used to work for me always calls and gives me a hard time about saving water; she went to the session with us and afterwards we were all coming up with ideas. We use a lot of groundwater in our process, and we have goals to reduce it within 8-10 years. That session helped us think about ways to do that.

It sounds as if you all spent some time on the exhibit floor.  What did you take away from that experience?

MANNI: You could walk through it three, four, five times, and maybe find a booth you didn't see before or follow up with someone you met Monday. Maybe first you got some ideas, but then you follow up and decide it's something you really want to pursue. Also there were two or three vendors that I never would have found just searching the internet that we've tried to do business with since we met them at TAPPICon.

The New Technology Showcases were very informative—there was a lot of cutting-edge stuff that I never thought of before, at least on the coating side. There were troubleshooting sessions with a panel of experts. You could ask "if we're dealing with air entrainment issues, do you have any tips or tricks on how to avoid that?" Or "I'm trying to get a machine dialed in to run a heavier weight grade, or a lighter weight grade, what should we look out for?"

Some were looking at technologies still in their infancy, like CO₂ capture. It's like seeing where the industry will be in 20 years. Others covered issues we are dealing with at the mill today, with someone in the industry to lead you in a solvable direction.

There's still time to register for TAPPICon 2026 in Columbus, OH. The premier conference for sustainable forest products producers, TAPPICon will take place April 26 - 29, 2026. A flexible program lets attendees choose the sessions, panels, workshops, and events that best support their career development. For program details and easy registration, visit tappicon.org; to learn about special rates for Mill Groups, contact TAPPI at (770) 446-1400.

Read more—including how Tom and Nate justified staff time and cost to attend TAPPICon—in the upcoming issue of Paper360°!