Schedule of Events

Military Session: New Year, New Budget and New Challenges for The Industry and for National Security
Ron Houle, Founder and President, Pivot Step Consultants LLC

Defense budget challenges for 2023 and 2024 will enter into the advanced textile and industry and into our national security. The tension for the allocation of limited resources across the range of demands from domestic and international stakeholders has never been greater. This session will explain the current state for budget outlays to defense, while also looking to the next few years for trends that will have near term implications for your business. You will come away from this session with a clearer understanding of these complex issues and better able to share these with your employees.

Auggie Tantillo, President, SRG & Associates

Auggie Tantillo will update attendees on policy and legislative developments to include buy-American requirements under the National Defense Authorization Act, China 301 and forced labor issues, the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, and regulatory issues confronting the industrial and technical textile sectors. His presentation will also incorporate insights as to how the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives will likely impact policy issues of importance to U.S. manufacturers.

Bill Rooney, Vice President Strategic Development, Kuehne + Nagel Inc.

A global review of conditions in the sea logistics industry covering cargo volume, congestion, rates, labor, government involvement, reliability, industry metrics and a forecast.

Laura Murphy, Research Director, Fibers, Wood Mackenzie Chemicals

The unknowns in the fiber world continue to rise, making for some murky forecasts ahead. This presentation will take a look at the current state of affairs and attempt to show what can come next for our industry.

Roger Tutterow, Ph.D, Professor of Economics, Kennesaw State University

Following the “great Recession” of 2008-9, the economy enjoyed it longest expansion of the Port-WW2 era. That expansion was derailed by a worst global pandemic seen in a several generations. Two years into the post-pandemic recovery, the economy faces new set of challenges threatening a return to recession.

In this session, we consider the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on the retail sector and real estate, prospects for resolution of supply chain and labor market dislocations, the recent upturn in inflation, ongoing changes in Federal Reserve policy changes including both an increasing of policy interest rates and the “unwinding” of bond purchases, implication of these policy shifts for financial institutions and corporate balance sheets, recent shifts in the outlook for residential and non-residential real estate markets and the implication of demographic trends for retail markets and the general business climate.