The 55^th Dornbirn Man-made Fibers Congress, a leading event and innovation platform that will take place from 20-22 September, is set to welcome around 800 researchers and technicians from 30 nations.

The considerable interest and the rising number of participants of the retail and the brands will complete the innovation network, organisers report. Like every year, the guiding principle of the event is sustainability, manifested in the content of the lectures, as well as expressed by the fact that Dornbirn-MFC is a certified Green Event.

This year visitors can find more than 100 expert lectures in the programme. The thematic focus of the 55th Dornbirn-MFC will be on fibres and textiles in automotive, fibres for nonwovens, latest fibre innovation, finishing and functional additives and textiles.

Novelties

In order to facilitate interaction and experience the congress will schedule some panel discussions and workshops in the programme. The Young Scientist Forum will take place the day before the beginning of the congress. Around 15 young research talents nominated by the sponsors will hold a workshop organized by a Managing Partner of the biggest Austrian Industry Consulting Group SYNGROUP. The topic will be Future Design of the Innovation Process – Challenges & Opportunities.

A high-calibre panel discussion will conclude the plenary on the opening day. The panel will be led by the owner of the most reputed global consulting company in the textile segment, GHERZI. The CEOs and board members of the top fibre producers, such as Indorama Group, Lenzing AG, Advansa, Fisipe, Märkische Faser and Dralon, will be on stage and discuss Asia’s dominance and remaining Europe in this context and how the economic environment will change in the future.

The closing of the whole congress will be a panel discussion supervised by a well-known marketing professor at the University Niederrhein. Top managers of the brands Adidas, Skinfit, Urbanrock, Icebreaker and others will be on stage and create a challenging discussion concerning the requirements on the innovation pipeline and which influence new communication channels, such as social media, might offer.

Side events 

Dornbirn-MFC is the innovation generator and communication platform, featuring several side events scheduled around the congress and co-organized by Dornbirn-MFC. Alongside the conference, CIRFS will host the 15th global meeting of chemical fibres associations, as well as a meeting of the Textiles in Automotive workgroup, under the supervision of Ms Eveline Weber, Adam Opel AG/GM.

Another event will be a fashion show on the legendary Major`s Evening. Fisipe, from Portugal, the highly specialized subsidiary of the main sponsor SGL Group, will provide wonderful artificial furs and other fabrics out of acrylic fibres for the catwalk.

Finally, Groz-Beckert, a leading provider of industrial machine needles, precision parts and fine tools, will present the longitudinally cut car of a major European car brand in original size in the foyer to demonstrate the various aspects of fibre usage.

Synergies

An essential part of the success of Dornbirn-MFC is the cooperation with international partners. Also this year, there will be close cooperation with prominent institutions and organisations. These include cooperation with SALTEX. The Community-Platform for Smart Textiles and Composites and its industrial automatization will take place from 5-6 October on the exhibition grounds in Dornbirn for the first time.

Another partnership has been agreed with EDANA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, which represents more than 240 companies along the nonwovens value chain. With the support of EDANA, a block of international, high qualitative lectures could be organized with specific focus on the fast growing global nonwovens segment.

Finally, a symbiosis of the two fairs is created through partnership with Avantex Paris, a textile fair where fashion and HiTec meet together, organised in Paris, by Messe Frankfurt France. According to organisers, the network Dornbirn-MFC Innovation Community works as an idea generator for the HiTec fabrics.

www.dornbirn-mfc.com