Speaking with…World of Wipes Chair Jan O’Regan
08.25.20
Ms. O’Regan discusses the planning of this year’s virtual conference
Amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, conferences and events around the world made the shift to virtual—including the World of Wipes International Conference taking place this week. Chairing this year’s event is Jan O’Regan, director, Nonwovens Marketing, Cotton Incorporated. Nonwovens Industry caught up with Jan to find out about the pivot to an all-virtual program and what attendees can expect.
Nonwovens Industry (NWI): Can you tell me about your role as chairperson of the World of Wipes International Conference?
Jan O’Regan (JO): The World of Wipes Committee is chock full of seasoned, smart, creative industry professionals who are genuinely interested giving back to the industry and our professional organization, INDA. The INDA team members do an amazing amount of heavy lifting around logistics, organizing, following up with speakers, scheduling meetings, marketing and communications and when it’s all over, the development, distribution and analysis of the conference survey. Together the entire group seriously considers the feedback from the last conference and then dives right into the work of brainstorming the most important issues and new innovative concepts to address in the next conference. The work spans the entire global supply chain and really never ends.
This year has been exceptional. The development of the pandemic at a time when we are wrapping up the conference planning meant that work typically finished around April was still underway in August. To my utter amazement, with time and energy running out, this committee continued to show up and participate at our monthly meetings!
As you can see, I don’t do much. They do it all. And, I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of their team!
NWI: How was INDA able to pivot to an all-virtual format so quickly?
JO: Necessity is the mother of invention, right?
Understanding that the biggest draw to a conference is the networking opportunities, no one wanted push out the June dates, never mind shift to a virtual conference. But, as time went on and the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic became clear, our choice was binary: hold a virtual conference or cancel the conference in 2020.
Wipes is a very important, global business for the nonwovens industry. Through the pandemic demand for wipes has surged and there remained a clear industry interest in the World of Wipes Conference. The INDA team members are the shining stars! They worked hard to find resources, evaluate options, make hard decisions and good decisions which enabled us to pull together a program to meet our more complex needs. This event will serve as a good example of what can be done using technology and a modified program structure to allow us to tap into the most current information on a variety of topics and connect with each other while protecting everyone’s health and safety. The World of Wipes committee is excited that committees for following conferences such as RISE and Hygienix will be able to build a better mousetrap from what we all learn this week!
NWI: What are some of the ways attendees will be able to make connections during the event?
JO: Classic Pathways: All the attendees receive a copy of the attendee list complete with email addresses.
New Pathways:
• Arrive early for a morning coffee talk
• Join a mid-morning Trivia Break
• Enjoy an afternoon tea break with someone new
• Pop into the exhibits. These tabletop zoom rooms will be offered on Tuesday 11:00 – Noon ET and on Wednesday, 4:00 – 5:00 ET to accommodate different time zones.
• Sign up for a speed meeting
• Bring your favorite beverage to a cocktail hour
Try out several! Please give us feedback on what you like and what you would change! It’s most appreciated!
NWI: The pandemic and its impact on the wipes industry is sure to be a hot topic among attendees. What other topics do you think will generate the most buzz during World of Wipes?
JO: We have something for everyone:
The agenda for the World of Wipes must address our global, growing and evolving marketplace. Topics for talks are wide ranging from substrates and preservatives; to new markets and marketing opportunities; the impact of regulation, trade and governmental affairs; the latest on COVID’s impact on the wipes market; new developments related to flushability and trends toward “plastic-free.” I would venture to offer that if you visit the exhibits you will find even more innovation and creativity coming out of the wipes industry!
NWI: What presentation(s) are you most looking forward to viewing at WOW?
JO: That’s the hardest question of all. My interest is broad. The topics on the agenda are all relevant. Perhaps what piques my curiosity the most will be the responses from the attendees as to how they experienced World of Wipes 2020. What worked well? What failed and why? What ideas can they offer to make the conferences to follow this fall be more of a success? After all, we are all one global family and families help each other.
Nonwovens Industry (NWI): Can you tell me about your role as chairperson of the World of Wipes International Conference?
Jan O’Regan (JO): The World of Wipes Committee is chock full of seasoned, smart, creative industry professionals who are genuinely interested giving back to the industry and our professional organization, INDA. The INDA team members do an amazing amount of heavy lifting around logistics, organizing, following up with speakers, scheduling meetings, marketing and communications and when it’s all over, the development, distribution and analysis of the conference survey. Together the entire group seriously considers the feedback from the last conference and then dives right into the work of brainstorming the most important issues and new innovative concepts to address in the next conference. The work spans the entire global supply chain and really never ends.
This year has been exceptional. The development of the pandemic at a time when we are wrapping up the conference planning meant that work typically finished around April was still underway in August. To my utter amazement, with time and energy running out, this committee continued to show up and participate at our monthly meetings!
As you can see, I don’t do much. They do it all. And, I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of their team!
NWI: How was INDA able to pivot to an all-virtual format so quickly?
JO: Necessity is the mother of invention, right?
Understanding that the biggest draw to a conference is the networking opportunities, no one wanted push out the June dates, never mind shift to a virtual conference. But, as time went on and the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic became clear, our choice was binary: hold a virtual conference or cancel the conference in 2020.
Wipes is a very important, global business for the nonwovens industry. Through the pandemic demand for wipes has surged and there remained a clear industry interest in the World of Wipes Conference. The INDA team members are the shining stars! They worked hard to find resources, evaluate options, make hard decisions and good decisions which enabled us to pull together a program to meet our more complex needs. This event will serve as a good example of what can be done using technology and a modified program structure to allow us to tap into the most current information on a variety of topics and connect with each other while protecting everyone’s health and safety. The World of Wipes committee is excited that committees for following conferences such as RISE and Hygienix will be able to build a better mousetrap from what we all learn this week!
NWI: What are some of the ways attendees will be able to make connections during the event?
JO: Classic Pathways: All the attendees receive a copy of the attendee list complete with email addresses.
New Pathways:
• Arrive early for a morning coffee talk
• Join a mid-morning Trivia Break
• Enjoy an afternoon tea break with someone new
• Pop into the exhibits. These tabletop zoom rooms will be offered on Tuesday 11:00 – Noon ET and on Wednesday, 4:00 – 5:00 ET to accommodate different time zones.
• Sign up for a speed meeting
• Bring your favorite beverage to a cocktail hour
Try out several! Please give us feedback on what you like and what you would change! It’s most appreciated!
NWI: The pandemic and its impact on the wipes industry is sure to be a hot topic among attendees. What other topics do you think will generate the most buzz during World of Wipes?
JO: We have something for everyone:
The agenda for the World of Wipes must address our global, growing and evolving marketplace. Topics for talks are wide ranging from substrates and preservatives; to new markets and marketing opportunities; the impact of regulation, trade and governmental affairs; the latest on COVID’s impact on the wipes market; new developments related to flushability and trends toward “plastic-free.” I would venture to offer that if you visit the exhibits you will find even more innovation and creativity coming out of the wipes industry!
NWI: What presentation(s) are you most looking forward to viewing at WOW?
JO: That’s the hardest question of all. My interest is broad. The topics on the agenda are all relevant. Perhaps what piques my curiosity the most will be the responses from the attendees as to how they experienced World of Wipes 2020. What worked well? What failed and why? What ideas can they offer to make the conferences to follow this fall be more of a success? After all, we are all one global family and families help each other.
