The overall response from the exhibitors and visitors at the latest edition of Techtextil North America was confirmation that they were pleased with the show and venue, organisers say. The tenth edition of Techtextil North America took place from 19-21 March at the Hilton Anaheim in Anaheim, California.

This was the third edition on the West Coast, and the first one in California and the change of location attracted over 1100 attendees from 30 countries – the event hosted 75 exhibitors from 16 countries.

John Gallagher, President of Messe Frankfurt USA, commented on the conclusion of the 2013 edition: “I am pleased with how well received the Techtextil North America Symposium was, and the numerous positive responses we had from the majority of our exhibitors regarding the quality of attendees with which they met.”

Held concurrently with the exhibition, the symposium attracted over 150 delegates and contained five sessions with 24 presentations in a variety of formats that covered the topics of new fibre developments, protective textiles, medical textiles, performance composites, and nonwovens, including filtration.

Francesco Fornasiero of Lawrence Livermore National Lab and one of the speakers at the protective textiles session, summarized: "Techtextil North America offered an excellent opportunity to interact with academia and the private sector to discuss a variety of evolutionary textile technologies. My experience resulted in several promising relationships for which I'm thankful."

SPESA Conference 

SPESA held its third educational conference on ‘Advancements in Manufacturing Technology’ for the sewn products industry. The sell-out audience of manufacturers heard from industry experts about how they could improve their quality and manufacturing efficiency while at the same time reducing the lead-time required for their production.

Participants’ positive feedback about the conference was said to be: “…engaging, informative, and very useful.”

“Their intelligent questions and interaction with the speakers during the networking breaks and during the cocktail reception on the Techtextil North America exhibition floor increased the important “take-a-way” value of the conference for everyone,” organisers say.

“This manufacturing technology conference proved that there is a real need in the sewn products industry for this kind of technical information, and SPESA is best positioned to provide this education,” said SPESA Managing Director Dave Gardner.

Duro Textiles, Dawn Clarke, VP Technical Marketing Military, USA commented: “We had excellent traffic to our booth. Within the morning of the first day, our time at the show was justified.”

Texcel, François Bourgault, Chef Marketing / Marketing Manager, Canada said: "As a returning exhibitor, we were very pleased this year by the traffic and the quality of the visitors we met at the Show. The Messe Frankfurt team is, as always, very courteous and professional. We will certainly be back on the West Coast in 2015.”

Allasso Industries, Walter Chappas, President, USA added: “Initially we were hesitant to exhibit, as we are a fairly new company. As the show comes to end, we can’t imagine not having exhibited. We received positive feedback and great contacts throughout.”