CEO Musings, Monday September 26th
ITMA – 2011 – Barcelona
Another excellent day, dozens of visitors with at least 9 qualified leads (inquiries) for U.S. fiber and/or yarn.
The “team” attended the North Carolina State, College of Textiles Reception this evening, certainly a key place to be if you are a US Company!
We networked with the crowd of mill execs and made our collective U.S. Alpaca presence felt!
We were also able to spend quality time with Dean Blanton Godfrey, Phd, former Dean Bob Barnhardt, Phd and Suzanne Weiner, CEO of the NCS Textile Foundation.
Blanton Godfrey is anxious to introduce me around to people he felt could help AU such as the Director of Textile Development-North Carolina Dept Of Commerce-Glenn Jackman, very nice man who offered to help us “open doors” to State supported funding agencies and private foundations like the “Golden Leaf”.
Spent 30min with Uster Technologies, manufacturer of the HVI mechanical classing equipment for cotton.
Discussed possibilities for adapting their systems to Alpaca, several hurdles to overcome but they had a few ideas for maybe adopting a “hybrid” system for long staple protein fibers. Their US Headquarters is in Knoxville, TN and they invited us to submit samples for evaluation-positive step.
Having Brian Hamilton our NCSU intern has been a homerun for Alpaca United. He is very well liked and respected at NCSU as a top student in the school and an especially nice young man-he is a very quick study with a mind like a steel trap, nothing gets by him!!
Attached are random pics of our U.S. team, Liz and Robyn working the crowd at the reception and walking the walk on the way there!
AU has a small buzz going.
Nick