INDEX23 debates innovations and trends in the nonwovens industry

Last week, the international nonwovens community came together again in Geneva for INDEX23. The event featured 610 exhibitors from 43 countries presenting their products in a space of over 50,000 square meters – which represented a significant increase in exhibitors compared to 2021. The number of participants also grew, with 12,017 visitor entries from over from 100 countries.

During four intensive days, exhibitors took the opportunity to meet new potential customers and expand business with existing customers. As the world’s leading nonwovens exhibition, INDEX once again provided an opportunity to showcase the latest advances and innovative developments in all nonwovens applications to thousands of visitors from around the world.

The INDEX Lab, an exchange center that showcases innovations and new developments, also showcased winners and runners-up from each of the five INDEX™ Innovation Awards categories. Open to any member company of Edana (European trade association for the nonwovens industry) or an exhibitor at INDEX 23, the award winners were announced at a ceremony on the first day of the exhibition.

The “Journey of Nonwovens”, an immersive experience that looks at the innovative role of nonwovens, as well as evolution over time around sustainability and how these materials are used in everyday life, also allowed visitors to discover the versatility of nonwovens.

“We are here to do business, but the nonwovens industry showed me that our supply chain is also one big family”, says Murat Dogru, EDANA’s General Manager. “It was a real pleasure to see the industry reunited once again in person to exchange, smile, negotiate, network, debate, and much more as we addressed challenges and discussed innovations”.

“It has been heart-warming to see so many representatives from the younger generations who feed the industry’s need in terms of new ideas, sustainable solutions, and business architecture”, adds Pieter Meijer, Chairman of the INDEX Advisory Board.

Parallel to the exhibition, there was also a complete program of events for participants: product presentations by 33 exhibitors; a series of informative seminars covering a range of topics including medical nonwovens, sustainability, circular economy, geosynthetics, textiles, mobility, fair trade, gender equity, innovation and market trends; country-specific briefings providing insight into the nonwovens market in various regions of the world; and a tutorial that serves as an introduction to nonwovens for those new to the industry. All of these topics were presented by leading industry experts and guest speakers, including the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Concern for the environment has become increasingly important in recent years and once again remained a key theme at INDEX 23, with companies pushing for further CO2 reductions and circularity across the supply chain. .

After successful deployment during Covid-19, the INDEX 23 Mobile App and Virtual Platform is back. This tool offered – both in Geneva and those accompanying from home – the chance to watch the presentations live and interact with speakers, exhibitors and other participants, in addition to allowing the planning of visits and meetings. Video recordings of the sessions will remain available online in the app and on the platform for the coming weeks.

“As INDEX 23 comes to a close, we are pleased to announce that INDEX 26 will take place as usual in three years from April 21-24, 2026 and look forward to welcoming the nonwovens community here again at Palexpo, in Geneva, and discovering how much further our dynamically evolving industry has progressed”, said Magali Fakhry Dufresne, Director of INDEX™.

“Based on my previous experience with trade shows and everything that I heard from our members since I arrived at EDANA, my expectations for INDEX were already extremely high, but even so I was still blown away. It was an exceptional week, from the moment I first stepped foot in Geneva on Sunday, until now, the last day of my first INDEX. The future of this exhibition looks really bright, and I’m excited to work with the EDANA and Palexpo teams to see how we can continue to flourish and evolve for the next edition”, concluded Dogru.