Committee Meetings and General Assembly

Committee Meetings and General Assembly

Lisbon's working programme also featured Afera's semi-annual Technical, Marketing and Steering Committee Meetings and Afera's annual General Assembly. More than a dozen issues and activities were discussed, decided upon and moved forward.

Afera pinpointed its role in bringing together all the players of the adhesive tape value chain and also those who work in adjacent technologies. Co-operation with global counterpart associations such as the PSTC (North American tape industry) and CATIA (Chinese tapes industry), as well as FINAT (European label industry), FEICA (European adhesives industry) and IVK (German adhesives industry) in the areas of regulatory affairs, sustainability, the Circular Economy and institutional research is being explored. Whereas FEICA focuses on substances and mixtures, Afera and FINAT represent tapes and labels respectively as "articles" under REACH, the European Chemicals Policy.

In the European and global regulatory arena, Reinhard Storbeck, Afera Technical Committee chairman and director of R&D at tesa SE, said that stepping up monitoring and activity was a top priority. He is currently in the process of recruiting a new Afera Regulatory Affairs Manager in order to be more actively involved on behalf of the European tape industry. "The regulatory landscape will change the way we all operate over the next decade," he emphasised. "We need to inform and support each other in transitioning our businesses." Building engagement in regulatory affairs and their trends will see the formation of a related Association sustainability policy.

Mr. Storbeck also reported on the Afera's test methods development programme, the 2020 edition of the Afera Test Methods Manual (free to all Members), the successful 9th Tape College in Brussels, Afera's 9th Technical Seminar planned on 6-8 April 2020 in Brussels (including a new tabletop exhibition), and the 7th Global Tape Forum & Global Test Methods Committee Meetings planned on 17-19 November 2020 in Osaka, Japan.

On behalf of the Marketing Committee, Mr. Geijsen discussed developing the online presence of Members through profiles at afera.com, namely company descriptions which will help with buyer journeys and enquiries. "Member of Afera" logo-links on company websites encourage visibility within the value chain ecosystem.

Afera has specific goals in Member recruitment: "Tape manufacturers will always be at the core of the Association, as that is our origin," reported Mr. Geijsen. "We have added backing suppliers, liners, machine makers, machine coaters, converters, and polymers and adhesives manufacturers." The Association's Membership conservatively represents 70% of tape volume produced in Europe. As of last year, the Steering Committee decided on extending Membership through the supply chain to companies closer to the end user, distributors of adhesive tape.

Mr. Geijsen also covered Afera's increasing presence in social media: the Afera member tape network and Design that sticks Twitter accounts and the Afera, The European adhesive tape network LinkedIn account.

"As a guest, I attended the MKC Meeting for the first time and was impressed by the significant discussions held around the strategic work streams of employer branding, sustainability, new Member engagement and communications initiatives," remarked Estela Viegas, EIMEA communications manager at H.B. Fuller.

Programme review: It's about more than just business intelligence
Committee Meetings and General Assembly
Outside the conference room
What participants had to say
Antitrust law