With 596 delegates from 173 companies across the nonwovens and related industries logging on, the online edition of Outlook showcased Edana’s mission to support sustainable growth of the industry. Held from April 21-23, the new format was a key component in ensuring participants could actively engage, managing over 3,000 video and chat meetings virtually.

 

The virtual platform also gave helped the participants enjoy a varied choice of conference presentations, panel discussions and live Q&A sessions. According to the company, conference examined emerging global drivers, market trends, sustainability initiatives and new product developments over three days. With 50 companies promoting new products and insights via company stands and over 6,000 new online contacts made, participants from across the whole supply chain once again made the most of all Outlook offers, confirming its position as a unique must-attend event for nonwoven professionals.

 

“In the midst of a year unlike any that’s come before, this edition clearly exceeded my expectations for such an online event, and I felt a lot of activity going on. It was an encouraging indicator for future events also,” Mikael Staal Axelsen, CEO of Fibertex Personal Care and chair of the Edana board, said in a press release. “All credit to the team and presenters for such a strong topical programme that attracted such a large active audience.”

 

The 20th edition of Outlook opened with a keynote speech on ‘The outlook for the global economy in the aftermath of the global pandemic’ from Robert Ward of The International Institute for Strategic Studies, with the second day’s opener by Kaushik Mitra focussing on the topical issue of raw material shortages. The rest of the conference programme featured 45 presentations covering regional updates from the US, India, Africa and China as well as a broad range of expert presentations on new product and process innovations.

 

Delegate feedback was very positive at the close of the three days. “This edition of Outlook was as good as it gets without a physical presence,” Jonathan Bourget of Apis Rex said. “I've reconnected with so many people with whom I otherwise wouldn't have- Bravo Edana!” 

 

“Alongside many sustainability programme offerings, I am thoroughly impressed by Edana making this online event so interactive. It was a really productive and engaging couple of days,” Mark Thornton of P&G said in the release.

 

“The benefit we usually get from in-person events cannot be achieved by virtual conferences, but we are very pleased with the contacts we made through the excellent networking and the great insights we received through in the presentations. Congratulations to the whole Edana team for this outstanding and so professionally managed conference,” Silke Brand-Kirsch, VP of marketing and business development at Glatfelter said.

 

“I myself was pleasantly surprised by how delegates adopted the interactive elements of our innovative conference format,” Pierre Wiertz, general manager of Edana said. “As well as enjoying some very exciting technical innovations and sustainability commitments in our sector, I was very enthused by the keen acceptance by the 40+ speakers of our invitation and the highly informative level of their presentation, beyond the welcome promotion of their companies’ efforts and vision.”