The International Cotton Conference is taking place in the 150th anniversary year of the Bremen Cotton Exchange. The birthday celebrations are also making their way into the conference. "We are very pleased about the gratifyingly high response to our conference and the participants‘ confidence in our work expressed by this. And I am particularly pleased to be able to welcome so many guests from Germany and abroad to Bremen and to celebrate our founding anniversary with them. The stay in Bremen finally creates the opportunity for the necessary direct exchange on professional issues. From our point of view, and this is certainly also the opinion in the industry, personal meetings are more desirable than ever after the pandemic restrictions", emphasises Stephanie Silber, President of the Bremen Cotton Exchange.

The anniversary week at a glance

Events in the run-up

The Cotton Week in Bremen began on Monday with a stakeholder conference organised by Cotton Made in Africa (CmiA). On 27-28 September, the first meetings of associations and working groups take place in Bremen. These include the meetings of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), the Discover Natural Fibres Initiative (DNFI), the Industrieverband Veredlung, Garne, Gewebe, Technische Textilien (IVGT), the ICAC Task Force on Commercial Standardization of Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC), the ICA Bremen Board Meeting as well as the meeting of the ICAC expert working group Social, Environmental and Economic Performance of Cotton Production (SEEP). in addition, an expert seminar of the textile industry will take place on Wednesday, 28 September at the ECOMAT Research and Development Centre. Accompanied by lectures, the changing quality requirements along the entire textile value chain will be discussed. The organisers are the Faserinstitut Bremen e.V., the Bremen Cotton Exchange, the ITMF and the IVGT. This confirms how important the conference has become for the industry networks.

New conference venue

The 36th International Cotton Conference Bremen begins on Thursday, 29 September. The venue this time is the Schütting, the listed building of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce, directly on the market square and in the vicinity of the Cotton Exchange. The Chamber of Commerce has represented the interests of Bremen’s trade since 1451, including the Bremen Cotton Exchange Association as a member since its foundation in 1872.

Anniversary evening at the Übersee-Museum

On Thursday, in keeping with the anniversary, the traditional Bremen Cotton Night will be held for all guests of the conference, in a different venue from usual, at the ÜberseeMuseum Bremen. This will be accompanied by the opening of a large cotton exhibition entitled ‚100 % Cotton‘ on the cultural history of the raw material in the past, present and future.

Topics of the Cotton Conference

The programme of the International Cotton Conference consists of seven sessions with lectures in presence. These will also be broadcasted online at the same time. In parallel, there will be additional online tracks with further, equally informative content. All sessions will be recorded. This means that participants will not miss any of the sessions and can follow them afterwards.

Poster presentations

A total of 13 poster presentations will provide valuable additional inspiration that will increase the added value for conference participants in Bremen. They will be presented at the conference venue in the Bremen Chamber of Commerce. Just like the conference lectures, but nevertheless from different perspectives, they deal with topics such as organic cotton production and the supply situation, various methods for creating transparency, the technologisation of textile production processes including design or the development of natural fibre-reinforced plastics with increased sound absorption made of flax, hemp and cotton for applications in the automotive sector or in architecture.

Online access to the Cotton Conference Bremen

Conference participants who are not travelling to Bremen and have opted for online participation will receive access data for all conference sessions, poster presentations, the virtual exhibition, workshops and networking/matchmaking events by e-mail before the start of the conference. However, regardless of attendance, all conference participants can also follow sessions online on the platform and use the various networking tools.

During the conference sessions and presentations, there are opportunities for interaction. Participants can use the conference software to ask questions to the conference speakers and get in touch with them. The virtual platform of the International Cotton Conference Bremen with the conference software ‚talque‘ is hosted by the Düsseldorf-based online event agency LIVENCO.

An invitation to the press: Of course, we cordially invite all interested media representatives – whether in attendance or online – to visit the Hybrid Edition of the 36th International Cotton Conference. Registrations are still possible. We will be happy to assist you in selecting suitable discussion and interview partners. We welcome any form of reporting on the conference. We are at your disposal for further questions and interviews.

Here you’ll find a folder of all press releases for the International Cotton Conference 2022 and a selection of pictures for download: https://cotton-conference-bremen.de/press-2/

About the Fibre Institute Bremen e. V. (FIBRE)

• In its 66-years history, the Institute has developed from a cotton testing laboratory into a successful research institute in the fields of future-oriented fibres, technical textiles and fibre composites at the University of Bremen. It deals with basic scientific and application-oriented questions along the entire process chain from fibre production to the manufacturing of fibre composite components and more for the aircraft industry.
• FIBRE’s central international importance in cotton is shown by its work on the international harmonisation of cotton testing [e.g. round tests in cooperation with the ICAC and USDA-AMS], its work in central committees [ICAC Committee on Standardised Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC), ITMF Cotton Testing.