The NEOTEX Technopole in Monastir, partner of the TEX-MED ALLIANCES Mediterranean project funded by the ENI CBC MED program, hosted, on May 31, 2022, the hybrid symposium entitled “Digital cluster of medical textiles”.
The symposium brought together more than 200 face-to-face and online participants representing key players and key players in the field of medical textiles in Europe and the MENA area. These have acquired greater importance and scope after the universal health crisis, Covid 19. Therefore, the digital cluster, officially launched on this occasion, aims to identify the main stakeholders, mobilize companies remotely and create synergies and exchanges to create fruitful alliances and partnership with high added value. It is through this prism and in this logic that the symposium brought together the ecosystem of medical textiles to address various aspects inherent to the proper functioning and promotion of the sector. The symposium was opened by Mr. Jalel Ben Haj Khelifa, DG of Technopole, by Mr. Samir Rekik, DG of textiles and clothing of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mines, by Mrs. Susanna Leonelli, coordinator of the TEX- project. MED ALLIANCES and Mr. Andrea Falchini, representative of the Italian Center for Technical Textiles. The meeting of experts and companies was divided into three main parts.
During a presentation of the digital cluster initiative, a return to the genesis of this initiative through a presentation by Mr. Francesco Pellizari, the technical expert of the TEX-MED ALLIANCES project, before continuing with a presentation by Mr. Ramzi Zammali, the coordinator of the digital cluster, which supported the positive impact of this marketing and assistance tool on the competitiveness of companies and on their ability to be much more responsive to the market demand for medical textiles. This digital cluster, which already brings together Mediterranean companies, will facilitate access to certifications, analyzes and tests, business opportunities and tenders, as well as monitoring and networking activities. Thus, the online platform of the Digital Cluster was presented and its intuitive aspect, easy to access and use, and the various very complementary sections were greatly appreciated by the public.
Then, several experts such as Mrs. Ada Ferri, representative of the Polytechnic of Turin, Stefano Ferrari, standard bearer of SKT Lab, or Matteo Malpaganti of the Italian Technical Textile Center, reviewed the latest innovations and properties of the sector as well as recommended treatments. antibacterials and antivirals as well as certifications and market regulations. Presentations covered a broad spectrum of fields of action, including information on public markets and healthcare tissue analysis. The symposium was also an opportunity to hear feedback from companies such as TEXIA, based in Spain, which transformed the negative externalities associated with the massive production of medical textiles into a market opportunity through the production of biodegradable medical textiles.
The third part of the day was dedicated to the primary vocation of the digital cluster, whose members are not necessarily linked to a limited geographical space, i.e. exchanges and the creation of connections thanks to a matchmaking session that hosted about sixty B2B meetings. in hybrid mode. Those who were online also benefited from the contribution of the European B2Match platform.
The “Digital cluster of medical textiles” symposium represented on the one hand an unprecedented opportunity to present the cluster, which saw strong support at the end of the exchanges and debates, and was also an opportunity for the various links of the medical textile supply chain come together around common challenges. The synergies resulting from this meeting offer very promising premises for the development of links between stakeholders. For this reason, the symposium ended with the announcement of the official opening of the virtual market on 1st June and which will extend until 1st September to allow the reconciliation between supply and demand for medical textile products.