I have been directly involved with the programming of several SGIA events for nearly a decade and have been attending them even longer. I previously helped to plan the Membrane Switch Symposium and in more recent years, the Industrial Applications and Printed Electronics Symposium. I often hear my colleagues speak about attending the early Membrane Switch Symposiums many years ago and I find it exciting that so many of us have seen the event evolve into what is now the FP3: Functional Printing, Process and Products Conference, which had its inaugural event in June of 2018.
The FP3 Conference, unlike its predecessors, was designed to attract and inform a very diverse group of companies from smart textile manufacturers to business best practices professionals to industrial printers and everything in between. The diverse FP3 agenda gave great insight to industry leaders on the newest technical innovations and business-related topics and inspired our industry’s finest members to take their businesses to new places.
For example, Mike Burrows of DuPont and I co-presented on our involvement with the creation of Ralph Lauren’s 2018 Winter Olympic jackets, which used a printed, flexible header to keep the athletes warm. The presentation opened with a short Ralph Lauren promo video about the jacket and its heading technology, after which SGIA’s very own Sarah Perkins modeled the heated jacket.
In tandem with the FP3 Conference, the theme of our presentation was “Collaboration Leads to Innovation.” We discussed how each of our companies became involved with the project and how we collaborated with other players who contributed key components to the jacket. We were also able to cover the different challenges that we faced in the creation of the jacket and the creative and collaborative solutions used to overcome hurdles.
Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome of our presentation and the conference as a whole. I hope it continues to grow and widen its impact in the years to come. I would also like to personally invite you to attend the FP3 Luncheon, to take place on Thursday, October 18 at the 2018 SGIA Expo in Las Vegas. You won’t want to miss this event, where you’ll receive exclusive details about next year’s FP3 Conference and will be able to network with like minded professionals from the Industrial Applications and Printed Electronics Community.
See you there!