2013 extremely busy & rewarding for INDA

Kicking off the year was the annual VISION Consumer Products Conference held January in Orlando, Florida. Over 325 industry executives were on hand to listen to thought provoking presentations and workshops and the growing role of nonwovens in consumer products.

Following the well-received VISION 2013 event, was the Annual Meeting & Leadership Conference where INDA Members were given the State of the Association, voted on Association business and listened to two outstanding speakers deliver information on game changers for the nonwovens/engineered fabrics industry with regards to the oil/gas boom in the US and the leadership changes in China. The new Board of Directors was also announced and introduced to the INDA Membership.

In April, the IDEA 2013 International Engineered Fabrics Conference & Exposition was held in Miami Beach, Florida. This IDEA event was INDA’s most successful show in its history.

With over 475 exhibitors, IDEA attracted over 7,000 participants from around the world to do business with global suppliers. IDEA also represented the full handover of INDA’s reigns to its new President, Dave Rousse, from Rory Holmes, Past President, who had announced his impending retirement in the fall of 2012.

On the heels of the IDEA show was the annual World of Wipes Conference held during June in Atlanta, Georgia. The universal feedback from participants was very positive with a full slate of informative, relevant topics to the wipes industry along with multiple business contact opportunities.

The World of Wipes was also a vehicle for the preview of the new third edition Flushability Guidelines and the accompanying Code of Practice for Communicating Appropriate Disposal Pathways for Disposable Nonwoven Products. The Guidelines and Code of Practice were formally rolled out by INDA and EDANA in September to the industry at large.

The summer also saw the July 23 release of the long-awaited rule modifying the federal hazardous waste management regulations that apply to non-laundered and laundered wipes contaminated with solvents that are used in tens of thousands of industrial and other facilities across the United States.

The move by the US Environmental Protection Agency was praised by INDA and the nonwovens industry as it provides more flexibility and increases the options for thousands of businesses who use industrial wipers.

The 4th annual RISE Conference was held in late September/early October in Denver, Colorado and brought together technology seekers in the global nonwovens/engineered fabrics value chain for two and a half days of thought-provoking, boundary expanding discussions about the latest technical innovations and how they can be applied to help create value-added, more competitive products.