William C. (Bill) Smith, President and founder, began Industrial Textile Associates in 1986. He has over 46 years experience in technical textiles. His expertise includes sales, product and market development, product management, and marketing management. Areas of involvement have included woven synthetic fabrics of spun, filament, and textured yarns, as well as experience in fiberglass and nonwovens.
Bill earned a BS in Textiles, Co-operative Plan, from Georgia Institute of Technology. He worked 25 years with J. P. Stevens & Co., Inc., leaving them in January 1986 (prior to their demise in 1987) and founding ITA. His early JPS experience involved marketing cotton and fiberglass fabrics before moving to the synthetic fabrics area. He has seen the evolution of this industry, from cotton, fiberglass, and nylon to polyester, polypropylene, Nomex, Kevlar, and many of the high performance fibers being used today. Bill served in various sales, marketing, and management functions, including managing product development efforts, lightweight filament fabrics for parachures, and aramid fabrics for military and civilian uses, filtration fabrics, and developed from scratch a multimillion dollar spun-yarn general industrial area for J.P. Stevens.
Active in trade groups throughout his career, Bill served several years on the Board of Governors and for two years as National President of the American Association for Textile Technology (AATT). He is active in several professional, civic, and religious organizations. He was consulting editor for industrial textiles for the old Textile World magazine (Intertec/PRIMEDIA) from 1987 until its sale in 2001. He is now North American Editor for TUT, Technical Textiles Usage, the bilingual international technical textiles magazine published in French and English (see links). He serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Industrial Textiles, (Sage Publications), formerly the Journal of Coated Fabrics, the only journal devoted exclusively to all facets of technical textiles. Bill edited a newly published (2010) book, Smart Textile Coatings and Laminates, for Woodhead Publishing (UK(.
Bill is in demand as a speaker and writes internationally on a variety of subjects related to the industrial textile industry. He originated, organized and conducted over 60 professional development conferences, including:
► With Clemson University: The Clemson University Conference on Protective Clothing (13 years), the original and often copied conference on the subject, Conference on Industrial Textiles (multiple times), plus numerous other specialized Clemson University PD conferences.
► With Textile World Magazine: The Textiles in Automotives Conference (10 years), the industry's first Intelligent Textiles Conference in 2000, Textile Recycling, among others.
► With Technomic Publishing Co/TUT Magazine.: The International Conference on Textile Coating and Laminating (14 years). After a 3 year lapse (due to the economy) TCL 2010 will be held in Cannes, France, November 4-5, with Bill's new co-sponsor, International Newsletters (UK), publishers of Technical Textiles International. See www.intnews.com/tcl2010 for details. Bill edited the newly published book Smart Textile Coatings and Laminates (Woodhead).
► With Technomic Publishing/International Fiber Journal: The Air Bag Technology Conference (12 years), the leading NA conference on passive automotive safety.
► With International Fiber Journal: The Fiber Technology Conference, and The Fibers Conference.
► As Symposium Director and consultant for Techtextil North America (TTNA), since its inception in 2000, Bill has developed the largest and most acclaimed industry symposium (TTNA Symposium) in North America, presenting a comprehensive program on the latest in technical textile information and developments. TTNA, and its symposium, is the premier event for showcasing high performance textiles. Techtextil North America "West" 2011 is scheduled for March 15-17 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. For further information about exhibiting at TTNA 2011, contact Stephanie Everett (stephanie.everett@usa.messefrankfurt.com) or visit TTNA's website at www.techtextilna.com. For information about presenting at the Techtextil North America Symposium 2011, please contact Bill.
We know the industry, and we keep up to date with the industry. The backgrounds of Bill and ITA's associates are diverse, and has been important factors in our work consulting with many of the industry's leading companies, many more than once, in assisting them to enter or improve their position in the industry. We keep up with the industry by a variety of means - attending exhibitions, conferences, conducting interviews, reviewing an extensive list of global publications, among others.
Consulting is a substantial part of our efforts and are most often oriented to market research and product and/or market development. We, as well as our clients, have found there is little reliable specific information about markets and applications in the technical textiles field. Overall, broad information and numbers are useful but usually not enough to make reliable business decisions -- the work must be specific to your needs. This often requires custom efforts to fulfill the needs of our clients. We can help.
Bill is a strong believer in the technical textile industry worldwide as well as in North America. He is one who feels the "glass is half full"; optimistic about the future and convinced that are many opportunities for those willing to do the work. If you feel you are one of those, we would like an opportunity to work with you.
Associative Relationships: To serve a broader range of client interests and needs, we have developed and maintain active, independent relationships with domestic and international consultants and consulting firms. Click on this link to find out more about them.