AIM Brands Week

The story

AIM, the European Brands Association, brought its first Brands Week to the Bump Policy Experience Space in 2026: five days of panels and conversation around one shared question — how can brands continue to earn consumer trust in a changing Europe?

Across the week the programme covered circularity, brand protection, resilient supply chains, fair trading, the Single Market, sustainability, consumer information and AI. The final day turned to AI and agentic commerce, and how they are changing the way consumers discover, choose and buy products: market, legal and technology perspectives first, then a panel on what it means in practice for brands and shoppers.

Beyond the panel room, an exhibition made the issues tangible: how packaging is evolving, how brands are innovating for sustainability, how information reaches consumers, and just how hard it can be to tell a genuine product from a counterfeit.

National brand associations from Belgium, France, Italy and Slovakia, along with AIM-Progress, organised panels through the week. One message came through clearly: brands are adapting to significant change — investing, innovating and responding to new technologies, expectations and rules — while continuing to manufacture in Europe and serve millions of consumers.