More than 500 absorbent hygiene and personal care professionals from over 24 countries and throughout the supply chain participated in INDA’s fourth edition of Hygienix–the premier event for absorbent hygiene & personal care markets held in Orlando, Florida. The 3-day event included presentations from 23 industry experts and 14 hours of scheduled networking.

The programme content focused on innovations in product design, incontinence, patient needs, nonwovens/engineered fabrics markets, economic trends, skin health, technical updates and sustainability. Participants also had the opportunity to meet industry leading companies at 53 tabletop exhibits held during two informal evening receptions.

A keynote presentation from Diana Sheehan, vice president retail & shopper insights, Kantar consulting, addressed The Amazon Effect – retail disruption that revealed emerging online developments with actionable insights to accelerate consumer retail growth.

An event highlight was the presentation of INDA’s coveted Hygienix Innovation Award to Callaly Tampliner, an organic cotton tampon with a built-in mini-liner with a patented virtual applicator for clean insertion, removal and protection against leaks.

Other finalists for the award were Avgol Nonwovens for BeneFIT Control, a next generation antimicrobial solution for absorbent hygiene, and Bostik for Brilliance, the world’s first high-performance polyolefin-based elastic attachment adhesive.

“We’re honoured and excited that our Tampliner won this year’s Hygienix Innovation Award. It’s a real achievement for a start-up working to improve product choice in the femcare industry. We’re privileged to be recognised by such a supportive and forward-thinking industry body and we thank INDA – and the wider industry – for welcoming our product so enthusiastically,” said Thang Vo-Ta, co-founder and CEO of Callaly.

“Having attended 100’s of health care and medical device trade shows over my last 25 years as a vendor and attendee, I found Hygienix conference in Orlando to be extremely well-organised, efficient, comfortable, informative, and productive in a compressed venue of events. This was my first INDA conference, but not my last!” said Palmer Dinkel, vice president, G& G Medical Products, LLC.

“Hygienix delivered valuable insights on markets, consumer needs, and technology developments that are forcing change in the absorbent hygiene industry.  The industry’s senior leadership convenes at Hygienix at one place at one time. Participants were able to advance their business interests with both the leading edge conference content and over 19 hours of scheduled face-to-face interaction time,” said Dave Rousse, INDA president.

“It was a fantastic event that brings information, ideas and the community together,” said Dr. Han Xu, principal scientist, nonwoven innovation commercialisation, global material development & supply, The Procter & Gamble Company. (PC)