The sixth Performance Days trade fair-roadshow is set to kick off in May this year and following the steady growth in the number of visitors to previous shows and an increase of more than 60% in November 2010, the show has its sights set on topping the 1000-guest mark this year.

The sixth Performance Days road show for functional fabrics will take place in the French city of Annecy on 12-13 May 2011 and in Munich on 16-17 May. Organisers say the trade fair- roadshow has become a must-attend event for many professional buyers and this has led to them expanding the event.

What’s new?

Performance Days will move to a new location at Munich’s MTC, which organisers say guarantees more space for more exhibitors and top quality newcomers. A newly created ‘bluesign area’, which presents all bluesign-certified exhibitors at one location for easy contact will also be launched and the guest speaker list will be expanded to feature well-known organisations like Hohenstein, Sportsella, Tectera, and Textile Exchange. A newly developed show newspaper is also planned to inform professional visitors about major trends at the shows.

Performance Days founders, the Weichert family, and the entire trade fair team are especially proud of the new location in Munich. For space reasons, the exhibition was moved from the former location at the Reithalle (Heßstraße) to the MTC facilities (Munich Textile Center) on Frankfurter Ring.

More space, more exhibitors

Visitors can expect nearly two and a half times more space or approximately 3000 square meters (previously only 1200 spare metres) and consequently, the number of exhibitor stands has increased from 64 to 74 to accommodate top name newcomers. Amongst the newcomers are well-known companies like Eschler from Switzerland, GE’s eVent Fabrics from the USA, Borgini Jersey Mybe from Italy and Dyntex from Austria. In addition, the Performance Forum established by designer Alexa Dehmel, will also doubled in size from 150m² to 300m².

“The ever popular ‘Come Together Party’ on the first day of the show is part of the program at both locations and will once again provide a casual atmosphere so exhibitors and guests can exchange professional ideas,” a spokesperson for Performance Days said.

bluesign area

Another new feature at the show is the bluesign area. This is an area where all the bluesign-certified suppliers have been assigned neighbouring exhibit stands for convenience. At the center of this section is the bluesign exhibit stand.

“We now see bluesign as one of the most important standards for the textile sector and want to emphasize this status with the bluesign area. The professional visitor should be able to tell at a glance which of our exhibitors are bluesign members,” said Marco Weichert explaining the new stand arrangement.

“Furthermore, the bluesign members are marked with a blue icon in the exhibitor catalogue and also, the bluesign filter criteria can be applied to the exhibitor list available on our website. 

The bluesign-certified exhibitor stands are located in Munich in Hall 2, on the right side in the direction of the Performance Forum, at stand numbers 201 – 215. In Annecy, they can be found as a unit between blocks M and L. There is also a performance-table at the Performance Forum dedicated to the bluesign themes.”

Performance News

Another brand new service for visitors this year is the ‘Performance News, newspaper which will be published for each exhibition containing current information about events, presentations and, of course, text and photos of the latest performance trends in functional materials. The newspaper is distributed free of charge at the fair.

Expanded speaker program

The guest speaker program for this year’s Performance Days has also been expanded. Over the course of this year’s edition, around ten interesting topics will be presented. In addition to the popular colour trends identified by designer association IDEAS and presented by Nora Kühner, there will also be for the first time a comprehensive presentation about the latest trends in functional fabrics.

This talk presented by industry journalist Ulrike Arlt, will be the ‘kick-off address’ in Munich. Other new speakers include experts from the Hohenstein Research Institute, who will address the function in functional fabrics, as well as Gerd Bittl from the internet portal Sportsella, who will share some new ideas in the area of sales training. A special highlight is a presentation by Charline Ducas (Textile Exchange) with lots of information about sustainable materials and the recycling of polyester and nylon.

New exhibitors at a glance

A. Sampaio (P), Borgini Jersey Mybe (I), dekoGraphics (D), Ding Zing (Taiwan), Dyntex (A), Eschler (CH), E. Textint (Taiwan), Fernando Valente (P), Formosa Taffeta (Taiwan), Free Time Zoeppritex (I), General Electric (USA), Global Challenge Sealon and Bristex (Korea), Mode…info (D), Riedel Textil (D), Saeron (Korea), Sanko Tekstil (Turkey), Synnix (Taiwan), Textile Exchange (USA), UGTI (D).