TEXTILES.ORG
Building on the success of the first Advanced Textiles conference in June 2008, and the endorsement of the international audience, the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) has announced that a second conference will be held April 2–3, 2009, in Brussels, Belgium.
Advanced Textiles ’08 took place in the cultural hub of Berlin, Germany, and gathered a multinational business forum of 100 attendees from 14 countries. The conference was conceived as a U.S.-European entrepreneur networking event to foster bilateral and cross-sectoral cooperation, strategic partnerships and innovation projects to create new business opportunities.
Next year’s conference in Brussels will again be geared to provide a networking platform for industry representatives from the many application areas of technical textiles, from clothing and home fashion to the medical, automotive, architectural and safety and protective industries. IFAI will partner with Brussels-based Fedustria, the Belgian association for the textile, wood and furniture industries. A number of other industry associations and government institutions have already confirmed their willingness to support this year’s conference, including: IVT, the German association for technical textiles; ITMF, the International Textile Manufacturers Federation; the U.S. Dept. of Commerce; and Clubtex, the French Association for the Promotion of Technical Textiles, among others.
The conference will focus on five major themes:
- Smart textiles: challenges and bottlenecks in applications;
- Highlights in safety and protective textiles;
- Nanotechnologies in the automotive sector;
- Textile membranes and architecture;
- Manmade fibers in medical applications.
According to IFAI president Stephen M. Warner, “Especially in these difficult world economic times, we want to back our industry by offering this innovative communication platform to foster bilateral business coooperation and valuable knowledge exchange.” For more information about Advanced Textiles ’09, visit ifaistaging.wpengine.com/Home/brusselsconference.cfm.