Impressive lineup of speakers highlights inaugural RISE

25 Jun '10

4 min read

Speakers from industries as diverse as automotives, consumer products and health care – along with some of the most forward-thinking innovators in the business today – highlight the impressive agenda at the inaugural Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics (RISE) Conference, scheduled for September 20-23 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Organized by INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, RISE is designed to stimulate innovation in all aspects of the development, production, marketing and sales of engineered fabrics. The target audience ranges from product managers and technical sales and marketing executives to product engineers, purchasing managers and research engineers at both consumer and industrial products companies.

“Our goal for RISE is to start the conversation between technical and marketing professionals to create new markets and revenues for companies in these markets,” says INDA President Rory Holmes.

Holmes points out that RISE will bring together some of the most creative, innovative minds in the global engineered fabrics business, as well as from related industries that utilize the products made by engineered fabrics companies. “RISE will provide attendees with the tools – and the motivation – to jumpstart their own progressive thinking in the global engineered fabrics industry.”

One of the highlights of RISE will be an intense four-hour innovation “boot camp” to help companies re-align their innovation efforts. It will be led by Karl-Michael Schumann, Innovation Advisor and Coach and former director of Research & Development at Procter & Gamble. Companies are invited to submit a specific innovation problem or question to Schumann in advance of the workshop for a confidential solution.

Another session on Sustainable Innovation – featuring Ron Hageman, Chief Technology Officer, New Composite Partners; Liila Woods, Senior Consultant, PE Americas; and Suzanne Shelton, President & CEO, Shelton Group – will discuss Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) as a quantitative tool to measure the impact products and systems have on the environment.

Among the market-specific sessions being held at RISE:

* Construction: Under pressure to “green up” their projects with alternative materials and energy saving solutions, architects and builders are caught between outmoded building codes and the need to introduce innovative practices into their designs. Innovation in building science requires more than new materials, however. World-class speakers -- André Desjarlais, Program Manager-Building Envelops Program, Oakridge National Laboratory; Helene Hardy-Pierce, Vice President of Technical Services, GAF Materials; Joe Lstiburek, Principal, Building Science Corp.; and Jerry Phelan, Bayer MaterialSciences – will discuss where innovation is driving these changes.

* Hygiene-Consumer & Medical. The concerns of consumers and environmentalists are merging and "green" is becoming a technical standard that must co-exist with other performance characteristics. Nancy Muller, Executive Director, National Association for Continence; Pricie Hannah, Vice President, John R. Starr, Inc.; Robert Green, Business Director, NatureWorks LLC; and Blair Childs, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, Premier, Inc. will help attendees learn what consumer needs and wants are and how they can be balanced with green alternatives.

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