As you all know, Munich as a venue for the sourcing of functional textiles had to be cancelled due to the Corona pandemic. Yet it was clear to the event organisers from the beginning that if no physical trade fair could be realised, the fair had to remain a stellar calendar event on its planned date of April 22-23 despite the difficult circumstances. Only a few weeks later, PERFORMANCE DAYS kept its promise and published its Focus Topic “Inspired by Nature - From Fibers to Green Treatments”. Since last week, the new Digital Fair has been enjoying great popularity, as user feedback shows: “It's great to have the webinars available online. Could you do this every year, even once the Pandemic is over. A digital show could save a lot of air travel!”, is the enthusiastic words of one Digital Fair visitor.

Webinars

A total of eight Expert Talks with around five hours of specialist knowledge content went online in the form of webinars, and continue to be available on the website. Among them, as always, were the key trend talks from Ulrike Arlt and Nora Kühner with the presentations of materials and color trends for summer 2022. Lena Weimer, Senior Marketing Manager sums up: “Feedback from webinar visitors is very positive, with ratings of 8 from 10 points on a scale of satisfaction. With almost 1.500 signed up participants, the values correspond to the experiences at the actual fair itself with the great difference that the webinars are still available after the fair dates, with the result that overall more material buyers and designers can benefit from it.”

PERFORMANCE COLORS BY NORA KÜHNER

After winter 2021/22’s “Inbetween” theme, summer 2022 will go under the title “Stories of another tomorrow” with the key message of actively shaping our future. According to the designer Nora Kühner, the lockdown shows even more how dependent we are on nature. Faced with darker times, the colors for summer 2022 are particularly intense and radiant. This radiance is also reflected in the pre-orders of PERFORMANCE COLORS by Nora Kühner. Following her talk, registrations for the free colour trends are starting to take on a record-breaking look.

Digital Sourcing

Long-time trade fair visitor, speaker and journalist Charles Ross also praises the new possibilities: “PERFORMANCE DAYS delivered far more than I expected. The highlight of the event is normally split between the PERFORMANCE FORUM and the Expert Talks. Via the Digital Fair, both of these attractions have remained and can be accessed. The clarity of the PERFORMANCE FORUM made it easy to focus on the trend and new developments." For the summer 2022 season, the jury of experts selected the best 414 material samples. Lisa Lechner, Senior Project Manager has this to report: “Since we are missing the personal interaction with visitors at the PERFORMANCE FORUM, we decided together with the jury that individual jury members would present their personal favorites. A further section on this topic will follow shortly under Digital Fair – Forum Highlights, along with further information per newsletter”. And colleague Theresia Brandl adds: “Also exhibitors such as Polartec, Drirelease, Everest, Pontetorto, Südwolle Group and many more are now presenting themselves in a total of almost 40 videos. These are available under the individual profiles. Simply click on the company logos.”