ITMF to Hold 2011 Conference in Barcelona

By Jim.Robinson|November 4, 2010

The International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), which recently held its 2010 annual conference in São Paulo, has announced that next year’s event will be held in Barcelona, Spain, from September 19-21. Because the dates lead up to the annual meeting of the International Exhibition o f Textile and Garment Machinery (IMA)–which is scheduled to be held at the same venue from Sept. 22-29–all ITMF delegates will participate in a joint ITMF/ITMA World Textile Summit, a high-level business forum that will bring together some of the world’s most influential thinkers and policymakers in strategically important fields such as economics, trade, technology and sustainability.

The 2010 ITMF Conference drew more than 300 attendees from 22 countries, with strong representation from Turkey and China, although the largest group came from the host nation of Brazil.

“The ITMF Annual Conference in Sao Paulo has shown that Brazil has not only a very diversified and strong textile and apparel industry but also an enormous and strong growing domestic economy that is providing many opportunities both in the traditional textile areas but also in the segment of technical textiles and non-wovens,” Christian Schindler, director-general of the Zurich-based ITMF, told Cotton International.

Schindler also reflected on three of the 2010 Conference’s primary topics of emphasis:

Historically high cotton prices. “With cotton prices reaching new heights almost every week (mainly due to lack of timely supply), the global cotton textile industry is, of course, deeply concerned. The soaring cotton prices seen in 2010 are detrimental to the cotton textile industry as a whole as it favors the increased use of man-made fibers. Furthermore, such increases reduce also the already-small margins of cotton textile manufacturers to an extent that can jeopardize their survival.”
The rise of the ‘neo-consumer.’ “The conference highlighted that in the age of technology, products like the Internet and smart phones offer new ways and means to look for products, to customize products, and to communicate and exchange information on Web-based platforms like Facebook or Twitter. The behavior of consumers has changed and those changes have to be taken into account. The so called ‘neo-consumer’ is different from the consumer of five years ago and therefore needs to be addressed differently.”
The sustainability of cotton. “The presentations have certainly proven that sustainability is not a short-lived phenomenon but a trend that will last and that has to be taken serious if textile companies want to survive in the future. A holistic approach toward sustainability is needed to understand the complexity and to implement the necessary changes in the entire business model and the value chain. The implementation needs a strategic top-down perspective.” Session speakers included Esquel’s John Cheh, Levi-Strauss’s Jeff Harlowe, Giuliano Noci from Politecnico di Milano, and Wang Tiankai from the China National textile and Apparel Council.

For more information, or to register for the 2011 ITMF Conference, please visit www.itmf.org.