It doesn’t matter whether you’re a glass half-empty or a glass half-full type of person, because it’s filler technology’s job to make sure the beverage container is always perfectly full. 

 Decades ago, people likely envisioned 2012 to be quite futuristic.   

Technology has made nearly everything shoppable in recent years, from billboards to social media sites. If the 2010 holiday shopping season was any indication, it’s serving as an increasingly important tool for consumers making purchasing decisions. This past holiday season marked the point when smartphones and other interactive technologies switched from “novelty to something that the average shopper [was] excited about because of the utility that technology affords,” says Alexandra Smith, a global analyst at Chicago-based market research firm Mintel International Group.

The International Society of Beverage Technologists hosted BevTech, its annual meeting April 11-13 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The meeting agenda included society business, technical committee forums as well as a forum for presentation of scientific and technical papers. The event also featured the first BevTech Technology Exposition. The meeting’s program was organized around three areas of interest for beverage technologists: safety, health and wellness, and sustainability.