SPESA Speaks | May Flowers

By SPESA

In case you missed the cheesiest of all cheesy SPESA Speaks last month, we talked a lot about rain, our worries for the industry, and holding out hope for gathering metaphorical rosebuds.

Now, after four long years, the rain has stopped and it’s finally time to bloom. Texprocess Americas is here! Well, it is two weeks away to be exact, but as this is our last issue of Behind the Seams before we head down to Atlanta for the show, it feels pretty dang close.

To say we are excited would be quite the understatement. Just take a look at SPESA’s nonstop #TPA22 posts on Twitter or Instagram and you’ll see our patience dwindling as the days tick by.

And in Behind the Seams you can find:

• A list of all the SPESA members exhibiting this year

• An interview with Just Style in which SPESA President Michael McDonald discusses the importance of the upcoming show

• An updated schedule for the Texprocess Americas Symposium

• More Q&A with Messe Frankfurt’s Ali Rosenberger on trade show marketing tips

• Previews of some of the products Texprocess Americas visitors will see from companies like Juki, Tukatech, and Zund.

We have been waiting for this show and planning for this show and thinking about this show almost every day since our current team took over management of SPESA three years, five months, and four days ago. You see, the craziest part is that, while Texprocess Americas is a pivotal part of SPESA’s mission and reason for existence, this is kind of our first time experiencing it.

When the last show occurred, back in 2018, Michael had recently been selected to become president of SPESA and was working closely with the Gardners, learning as much as possible from their vast experience before they retired and he officially took the reins. Maggie was making her own career moves while newly pregnant with our long-standing SPESA employee of the month. Marie was back working in D.C. pretending she was no longer going to be in the sewn products industry.

Now, as we approach the 2022 editions of Texprocess Americas and Techtextil North America, things look a little different. The new SPESA team is all settled in North Carolina, and we’d even argue we’re starting to get the hang of things. Bo is learning to share his employee of the month status with a certain newcomer. And we survived a global pandemic (although Michael’s beard may be the best thing that came out of it). It has been an interesting and challenging few years and we are ready to see some of our efforts pay off.

There is still a lot of work to be done — despite all of our anticipation for Texprocess Americas 2022, it also somehow snuck up on us — and we are going to be very busy in the next couple weeks making sure everything is ready to go as we welcome the sewn products industry back to the largest and best technical textiles, non-wovens, machinery, sewn products, and equipment trade shows in the Americas.

If any of our members who are exhibiting at the show need last minute assistance, please let us know. Or if any of our Behind the Seams readers have questions about Texprocess Americas or Techtextil North America, please reach out to our team. We are happy to help. Otherwise, we will see you in Atlanta!