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Posted May 2, 2016

 

Finally slept in my own bed this weekend after being out of town on my Textile Tour of Duty for almost three weeks – but I’m off again to Atlanta today for the three-shows-in-one “textravaganza” at the Georgia World Congress Center. But before departing, I’d like to dispense of a few items, as my digital notebook runneth over …

 

I received notice last week that the Techtextil North America/Texprocess Americas app is available for download. Exhibition apps are always helpful as I traverse trade show halls, so I downloaded it immediately, expecting the usual info: booth numbers, exhibitor summaries, maps, symposium times, show times, etc. What I wasn’t expecting was the social platform incorporated into the app. It gives you the ability to post your own photos and updates, follow others and like or comment on posts. It also post links to social feeds, has a poll and provides a photo feed. If you’ll be at the shows, be sure to get this interactive, multidirectional communication app and follow eTC, a proud media partner. …

 

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I’ve witnessed angst more than once, especially over the past three weeks, by a number of industry representatives due to the Atlanta shows directly conflicting with INDA’s IDEA16 show in Boston this week. I count myself among those flummoxed by this scheduling snafu, which will prevent me from covering the nonwovens show. I know, as each organizer needs to independently seek best dates for their membership and attendees, that overlap often occurs. So in the future, I would suggest that any organizer or association looking at dates for future events to please contact me first. I usually have a long-term calendar and may be able to provide details of any potential conflicts. …

 

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I received an email from Bill Jasper Thursday informing me (and others) that he had retired as president & CEO of Unifi, Inc. in Greensboro, N.C. His departure seemed sudden, and I soon learned that not only had he stepped down, but COO Roger Berrier Jr. had resigned. The company isn’t providing any details about these departures, so I won’t speculate. However, I would like to give Bill a proper sendoff by thanking him for his service to Unifi and the broader industry as three-term chairman of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), during which time the council and the industry underwent tremendous change and evolution. He had agreed to serve the unprecedented tenure at NCTO in order to provide consistent leadership through some turbulent times – when the organization merged with two other large associations and aggressively advocated for the industry in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. Best wishes, Bill. It’s been a pleasure and I thank you all the hard work and difference you made for our industry. …

Notes from the road

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After the recent Smart Fabrics Summit in Washington, D.C., I conducted a quick interview with Joshua Teitelbaum, department assistant secretary for Textiles, Consumer Goods and Materials, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, who gave me some insights on how the highly successful event came about. Though co-sponsored by the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), it was actually the brainchild of the DoC, he told me.

 

“We work very closely with the domestic textiles industry,” he said. “About a year ago we started to think about not just where products were coming from and where we were exporting to, but how the products were changing and how that might affect the U.S. industry. We knew that innovation and capital investment were going to be key for a changing textile industry. So we started reaching out to textile and apparel companies and asking, ‘are smart fabrics a real market and, if so, what can we do to help?’ That ultimately led us to contact tech companies and we reached a few conclusions after about three dozen conversations, and those conclusions were that, yes, there were some opportunities here, and, yes, there will be some growth – but there needs to be some collaboration in order for that to happen.”

 

The DoC partnered with IFAI to sponsor the event, which brought together a veritable “cat and dog” group of entities, including textiles/apparel, tech, government and academia.

 

I still boggles my seen-everything-in-textiles mind that government has taken such an active interest in our industry and well being, even if smart fabrics are a small percentage of what we do. Of course, we, as an industry, have been sending messages of our capabilities to the government for many years, and it’s good they’re listening now. 

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