The FESPA’s one-day Digital Textile Conference builds on the success of a series which have taken place over the course of the last eight years. It’s next Digital Textile Conference coming up this September in Milan, Italy. The conference have been designed to help members of FESPA's global specialty printing community realize the growth opportunities in digital printing on textile substrates for a range of applications.

The September 2016 conference programme will provide print service providers with insights into the diverse market segments of digital textile printing, feedback from printers who have successfully entered the sector and technical guidance on how to address the opportunity, including updates on the latest technology developments in machinery, software, inks and textiles.

The event will be delivered with the support of the FESPA Italia Association and in close collaboration with Sistema Moda Italia, the Italian Fashion and Textile Federation, and Associazione Italiana Disegnatori Tessili, the Italian Textile Designers Association, both of which will field speakers. The event is also sponsored by MS Italy.

FESPA Digital Textile Conferences offer a focused environment in which to learn and network, both for printers already active in digital textile printing and for those still seeking to explore the opportunity.

The conference programme will be delivered in English and Italian. Confirmed speakers and panellists so far include Enrico Barboglio (FESPA Italia); Duncan MacOwan (FESPA); Ron Gilboa (InfoTrends); Fulvio Alvisi (AIDT); Andrea Ferrero (Miroglio Textiles); Lorenzo Zottar (The Color Soup); Gianluca Brenna (Stamperia di Lipomo); Dario Garnero (Stamperia Serica Italiana) and Andrea Barbiani (MS Italy). The event will be moderated by respected Italian industry journalist Paola Bonfanti.

The September 2016 Digital Textile Conference is co-located with FESPA Italia Day, the event for members of FESPA's Italian association, enabling members to efficiently combine participation in both events.

The choice of Milan as the location of the next FESPA Digital Textile Conference reflects the significance of Italy, and the Como region in particular, as a centre of European textile manufacturing and decorating excellence, accounting for 55% of the European digital textile market and producing more than 180 million square metres of digitally printed textiles in 2015.

FESPA CEO Neil Felton said that a year on from the FESPA Census, printers are turning interest into action, as they saw from the tremendous buzz in the FESPA Textile halls in Amsterdam a few months ago. Today, digital accounts for only a small proportion of all textile printing, but this is forecast to grow substantially in the years ahead, with estimates suggesting that digital could account for 5% of textile printing by 2020, up from 2% today. Clearly that's a significant diversification opportunity for printers already invested in digital output technology and supporting workflows.