In closing the 12th edition of OUTLOOK, the conference for the nonwovens personal care industry, Pierre Wiertz, general manager of EDANA recognized the demand on companies across the supply chain to not only produce smart effective and resource-efficient products for today’s consumers, but the need to look ahead to 2020 and how both society and consumer’s needs and demands might change.

“The more than 400 attendees have heard from a number of speakers that today’s consumers are not only more demanding in terms of the product features and availability, but also expect the manufacturer to act in the best interest of the broader society, and for the benefit of our long term resource availability,” says Wiertz. “EDANA’s Vision 2020 study, provided to its member companies in 2011 confirms this trend, and we are pleased to see so many companies already preparing for the future consumer’s needs, and how their business will match those demands.”

Launching the conference, Robert Ward, country publishing director for the Economist Intelligence Unit shared knowledge about global economic positions, including his view and insights of the future leading economic markets in the coming decade. With rebalanced economies and shifting demographics in some key markets for nonwoven personal care products, he highlighted the aging population in important markets and the future national economic potential in key African countries.

In the second keynote of the conference, Robert Glaze, founder of The Brenva Institute spoke about disruptive technologies and key technology and business strategies for the future. Glaze stressed the importance of the information and its transfer to knowledge was where both individuals and businesses alike would gain the most value, rather than the technology to store or channel the data.

Feedback from participants underlined the satisfaction with the mix and quality of papers, and the opportunity to meet with the industry. There were several opportunities engineered for delegates to focus both on the conference proceeding and to enjoy relaxed networking The event attracted nearly 200 companies from 30 countries across the globe.

Speakers also covered optimization of technology and transfer of knowledge, market data and trends for Europe and Brazil, an update on the EDANA/INDA Flushability Guidelines and Labelling Code of Practice, raw materials development and use, papers on both the consumer and retail environment, and the impact of cosmetics regulations on wet wipes.

The next edition of Outlook will take place in Barcelona, from Sept. 24-26, 2014.