IAF Spring Member Event Frankfurt: overview key outcomes

The IAF held its annual Spring Member Event in Frankfurt on May 13th and 14th back to back with the Texprocess and Techtextil Fairs. In the morning of May 13th, IAF’s bi-annual Board of Directors meeting brought together the majority of the Board, representing 12 countries from all continents.

The IAF Board expressed its gratitude to parting Board members Les Miller of American & Efird and Murat Aydin, CEO of Modega and Board Member of the Turkish association TCMA. At the same meeting, the IAF Board also chose their successors, namely Chris Alt, President of American & Efird and Sanem Dikmen, President of European Tshirt Factory and TCMA Board Member.

In the afternoon of May 13th, IAF’s mini conference on ‘supply chain 4.0’ brought together more than 50 IAF members to listen to presentations by Giuseppe Gherzi and Razvan Ionelle of Gherzi Consultants and by David Schmelzeisen of the ITA Institute of the University of Aachen. On the one hand, the audience was impressed by the amount of disruption that is hitting and about to hit the apparel industry. On the other hand, it was good to hear that technological advances enable SMEs to make affordable smart investments in software and e-learning.

At the Texprocess Fair, on May 14th, the IAF organized a ‘manufacturers meeting’ bringing together industry associations and manufacturing groups such as Matrix from Pakistan, Aurora from Vietnam and Denim Expert from Bangladesh. This group has its focus on global solutions for common apparel manufacturer’s challenges.

Also, at the Fair, the IAF was present at a very well attended press conference to promote the ‘Joint Industry Manifesto’ to deliver a circular economy in textiles’. The IAF has co-signed the circular textiles manifesto, along with Euratex, the Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), Fesi and the SAC. IAF supports the manifesto as it clearly recognizes the importance of a truly global approach to circularity. So, with a consortium that is both European and global from the outset, the necessary connections between the European actions and those emerging in the rest of the world can be made. IAF will actively use its worldwide network to help create the connections for a global approach to circular fashion.