Shaping the Future
March 31, 2010 The International Cotton Conference Bremen marks its 30th anniversary in 2010, but its history actually reaches back more than 50 years. Starting as a cotton testing colloquium in 1955, the event developed into a cotton testing conference in 1959. The first official International Cotton Testing Conference took place in 1964 and subsequently expanded from a cotton testing conference to a full cotton conference that is one of the primary meeting points for cotton specialists worldwide.
In addition to the conference sessions, an impressive number of committees (including the ITMF International Committee on Cotton Testing Methods, the ICAC CSITC Task Force, the CICCA Working Group, the ACME Meeting and the ICAC SEEP and PSAP Panels) meet during this outstanding week for cotton.
The conference is organized as a fruitful cooperation between the Fibre Institute Bremen and the Bremen Cotton Exchange. Our objective is to present important developments, starting with cotton production and ending in the textile process. The conference addresses topics of general interest, as well as technical topics. In view of its anniversary, this year’s conference will also attempt to show ways to meet the challenges of the future.
One focal point of the conference is the consumer factor, as this determines the whole value-added chain and the follow-up activities of brands and retailers. Specifically, sustainability is an important keyword in this context. In addition, a session on new products will demonstrate new market opportunities.
Of course, cotton production is changing. Presentations will look at new perspectives in cotton production research and at developments in biotechnology and its effects. A separate session will offer the opportunity for the different cotton growing regions in the world to highlight regional changes in the next decade. This session will include India, the United States, South America and Africa, as well as China.
In terms of cotton trading, the conference will address commercial themes such as risk management and the consequences of concentration, or consolidation, in the world cotton industry. It will also address the change from manual classing to instrument testing. A panel discussion featuring cotton growers, merchants and spinners will shed light on the impacts on daily business.
In cotton testing, new developments and instruments will be examined. The final session will follow the Bremen tradition of reviewing some of the latest developments in fiber processing and several of the major machinery builders have been invited to describe their progress in improving the transformation of cotton to yarn.
A new medium at the conference will be a poster presentation session. This will widen the spectrum of the conference topics significantly without changing the given timeframe that includes two days of presentations.
We look forward to seeing you in Bremen.
photo:
Jan B. Wellmann
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