Deadline came early this month at Nonwovens Industry…nearly two weeks early to give us enough time to get this issue across the Atlantic for INDEX, which will undoubtedly be the year’s largest nonwovens event with more than 500 exhibitors and literally thousands of attendees expected.

Getting together the year’s largest issue in about half the time we normally have is challenging enough, but when you add to it the fact that both our March and April issues were co-mailing with our two supplements, Nonwovens Industry Southeast Asia and Household and Personal Care Wipes, things have been downright insane. Nevertheless, as of this posting, it looks like we will meet all of our deadlines and this 186-page issue will make it to Geneva—so now we can take a deep breath and relax….not really.

As our print schedule gets back to normal, everything else gets crazy.

The next few weeks leading up to INDEX will be a flurry of activity, trying to get as much of our May issue finished before we leave, getting our daily e-newsletters together, coordinating our daily schedules at the show, and more. This will be my sixth INDEX show, and if I have learned one thing, preparation is key to a successful show.

And, INDEX is just the start of a busy spring show schedule. Two weeks after INDEX is the International Converting Exhibition (ICE) Show in Orlando, FL, where I will be presenting at the conference portion of the event, and in the first week of May it will be back to Europe for Techtextil in Frankfurt, Germany. In June, we’ll be back at it at the World of Wipes Conference in Nashville, TN.

While all of this will surely be exhausting, getting out of the office to shows and conferences is the best way to get a sense of what’s going on in the industry. INDEX, in itself, is sure to be four days chocked full of new products and innovations that will drive advancement in the nonwovens and related industries for years to come. On page 144, we report on what just a handful of exhibitors are planning to showcase at the event, and, if these are any indication, we will have a lot to report on in our daily breaking newsletters live from INDEX and in the pages of this magazine when we return.

In fact, this magazine will be your go-to guide for INDEX, whether you are attending the event and want to use our exhibitor listings (page 78) as your guide, or if you are staying home but want to stay up to date on what’s going on through our regular tweets (@KarenNonwovens and @NonwovensMag) or our daily electronic newsletters (go to nitesh_non.rodpub.com/users/join/ to subscribe). And, don’t forget to check back with our May and June issues for our post-show reports.

Hope to see you in Geneva.



Karen McIntyre
Editor
[email protected]