Tips for making the right product decisions

November 5, 2020  |  Expo News

A Trivantage-sponsored education session at IFAI Virtual Expo 2020 called “Making the Right Product Decisions” was filled with detailed information about product choices and installation tips to help fabricators successfully create shade projects in commercial, vertical, shade sail, upholstery a…
Read More
A primer on Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)

November 5, 2020  |  Expo News

An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) offers lots of attractive benefits: studies have shown that ESOPs improve productivity, increase sales and improve return on assets, plus they offer great tax advantages. But more than any of these attributes, an ESOP offers the owner of a company peace of min…
Read More
HGTV stars reanimate neighborhoods while growing a family business

November 4, 2020  |  Expo News

If children dress up like you on Halloween, it might be safe to say that you’ve made it. Made it, that is, as television stars, as have HGTV’s “Good Bones” hosts Mina Starsiak Hawk and Karen E Laine. The mother-daughter team were featured keynote speakers Nov. 4 at the IFAI Virtual Expo 2020…
Read More
Understanding intelligent textiles

November 4, 2020  |  Expo News

The Advanced Textiles Conference of IFAI’s Virtual Expo 2020 continued Nov. 4 with a detailed presentation by Justine Decaens on “Smart Textiles: From Lab Prototypes to Commercial Products.” Decaens is R&D director with CTT Group, a testing laboratory and R&D facility specialized in te…
Read More
Policy challenges and opportunities for U.S. textile manufacturing

November 3, 2020  |  Expo News

The U.S. textile industry worked “swiftly and impressively” to pivot to produce personal protective equipment (PPE) this spring, leveraging existing manufacturing know-how and equipment and making new investments to shift production, according to Sara Beatty, president of White Haven Trade Advis…
Read More
Shade fabric 101

November 3, 2020  |  Expo News

Patrick Lane, president of Alnet Americas Inc., presented a session at IFAI Virtual Expo 2020 about shade fabric characteristics and terminology. Lane discussed an overview of premium shade fabric properties and performance. According to Lane, there are many construction variations and styles of sha…
Read More
The regulatory path for medical PPE

November 3, 2020  |  Expo News

An afternoon session by Jing Liang, founder and president of Medical PPE Consulting LLC, walked participants through the regulatory process and testing for medical personnel protective equipment (PPE) In her session, “Understanding Testing Requirements of Medical PPE,” she noted the variety of P…
Read More
Integrating smart homes and window treatments: overcoming the challenges

November 3, 2020  |  Expo News

Even bottled water is marketed as “smart” these days, notes Andre Comitre, COO of Artisan Window Fashions, but that claim does not make it true. Similarly, “smart homes” are easy to tout, but the reality of fully-integrated systems is still in the process of being realized. Comitre, an archi…
Read More
Case studies in shade sail design

November 3, 2020  |  Expo News

Wholesale Shade’s Robin DuBroy, director of training programs, and Gregg Burrows, sales manager, presented a session at IFAI Virtual Expo 2020 about shade sail design and installation. Using numerous case studies of various designs and difficulty levels, the speakers discussed each project in term…
Read More
Virtual Expo 2020 advanced textiles education begins

November 3, 2020  |  Expo News

The Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) opened the advanced textiles education sessions of Virtual Expo 2020 with a presentation by Dr. Sasha Stolyarov, CEO, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA). His presentation, “The Development of Advanced Functional Fibers and Fa…
Read More