Eighteen months after its originally scheduled date and after several rescheduled and then cancelled dates, INDEX 2020 will open its doors this month at PalExpo in Geneva, Switzerland, and, like everything else, things will be different at this year’s show.

It is likely there will be considerably less people attending in person. Travel between Asia and Europe is nearly impossible and travel between North America and Europe continues to be fraught with challenges. Luckily the event organizers, EDANA and OrgExpo, have developed a virtual component to the show, giving both exhibitors and attendees who can’t be there in person a chance to see what’s going on in Geneva.

Those who are able to attend may be a little hesitant to be back amidst so many people. It’s been a long 18 months of solitude, so face-to-face meetings may be scary. To solve this problem, organizers have made sure there will be plenty of hand sanitizers and face masks to go around. And, there will be a Covid testing center open right at the exposition center.
While these things would have seemed crazy at the start of 2020, when the industry was gearing up for the original INDEX 2020, they are now a regular part of life.

As life has changed considerably over the last year and a half, so has the nonwovens industry. Unprecedented spikes in demand for nonwoven items like medical gowns, face masks and surface cleaning wipes has led to one of the largest periods of line investments the industry has ever seen.

All of this new technology, which encompasses all types of nonwovens, will surely continue to transform the industry in the next several years as competition intensifies, the need for greener materials continues to grow and nonwovens become even more prevalent in our daily lives. There is no doubt we will begin to see signs of these changes—either in person or virtually—at this month’s INDEX 2020 show, which has been 18 months in the making.

There are good things to come for nonwovens.


Karen McIntyre
Editor
[email protected]