Farewell as President

I just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed being President and meeting many people. I have worked hard and I have learnt a lot as well. We have launched our Colour Management in Textiles Modules but we still have to work hard to ensure that we train our trainers well. We have not paid as much attention to the UK textile companies as we would like but I did start to visit some at the end of my Presidency. Mike Bartle our new President and Susie Hargreaves are going to make sure they contact and speak to industry everywhere. I am therefore saying farewell as President but hope to see you all soon.

I would like to wish Mike all the best. I know he will be a great President.

Last but not least

This was my last trip as President and it was to the AATCC conference in Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. This was the first visit where I have been and not actually worked but acted as a pure ambassador for the Society. We met with our old friends Jack Daniels, head of AATCC, past President Martin Bide and the new President Fred Cook. I presented Fred with a present to mark his being made honorary member, a reciprocal agreement for Presidents of either society. Martin Bide made me honorary member of AATCC in April last year. There were two brits winning awards our own Professor David Lewis and John Provost. David Lewis won the prestigious Olney award for outstanding achievement in textile Chemistry and John won the Millsen award together with Wim Prinsen for the invention of the first commercially available ink jet printer for textile fabrics. The conference had about 150 to 200 attendees and I attended the C2C track which I found to be very interesting.

Visit to UK events

In February I attended the AGM of the London Region together with Susie Hargreaves who spoke about the SDC in the 21st century. March has been a very busy month. I started by visiting two dye houses in the North West to see why they were successful and what the SDC could do for them. The two companies were Blackburn Yarn Dyers and Pincroft Dyeing and Printing Ltd an I hope to visit two more before I finish my Presidency. I attended the Midland regions’ AGM and seminar as well as being a judge at the Midland heat of the design competition. It was my honour to present the 50 year membership awards at this time. Shortly after this I flew to Northern Ireland for their AGM and was also a judge at their design competition. I was welcomed at both events which I really enjoyed, and was amazed about the sheer talent of all the young designers, their enthusiasm and eloquence of the presentations. It was really hard to decide the winners! The winners were Cassandra Hawkins in the midlands and Aiofe Twomey in Northern Ireland, both will go on to the final in Bradford at the end of April.

The first and second days of colour in India

We held the first Day of Colour in India at KCT in Coimbatore. We were honoured to meet the principal Dr Joseph Thanikal as well as Professors and HOD of Fashion Technology, DR Ramachandralu, as well as Dr D'Souza. Professor and HOD Textile Technology. Mr Sankaran Professor and Head coordinator made sure our tour of the facilities were successful. Siva arranged the event and I gave a talk on colour perception, best practice , Ramya Kandiyoor from International Colour Solutions presented about how important it is to have the right colour standards and Llaxmi Natarajan an inspirational designer based in Australia encouraged the students to share the design concepts.

I need to mention here how impressive the main building was it looked like a palace and you can see it in the back drop of one of the pictures.

We held the second Day of Colour at PSG in Coumbatore, unfortunately I don't have any photographs but the same event was held with the same speakers. Dr T Ramachandran hosted the event very well. It was here that we saw the most amazing sari design with 164,000 hues.

'Global Textile Opportunities – Vision India'

I attended the TAI conference in Mumbai on 16 to 17 January and presented a lecture on Best Practice and Innovation in Colour Assessment and Communication on the morning of 17th. I attended the SDC EC trustee meeting on 16th and we discussed the forthcoming training courses and the conference in Goa. It was good to meet the trustees and many of my old friends at the conference. Please see Vilas Gupte who invited me to speak at the TAI conference on the right,

The first Colour Management for Textiles Diploma modules were held in December at Verivide in Leicester. The attendees came fro Next, Panache and John Lewis. The courses were highly successful and all attendees achieved a pass of over 75%. Well done to everyone. The comments were that the courses were excellent and wished they had been held before. They did want to spend a longer time with each modules as they had so many questions! We will address these on Modules 3 and 4 when we repeat some of the content again. in more detail and these and more questions will be answered. The chief tutors were myself and Janet Best.

Bangladesh and Hong Kong

This was a very important and interesting visit, the first region in Bangladesh, the second female President and the first female CEO of the SDC. We visited the College of Textile Engineering and Technology in Dhaka and four other companies BDL, Bextex, Pertex and Dird Composite where we got an overview of good fabric production. The traffic made us late on several occasions. We had an inauguration seminar where both I and Arthur Whelan, previous President, spoke about best practice and getting it right first time. There were about 200 attendees. I would like to thank Mr Barmma for both making us welcome and organising an excellent seminar and series of visits.

Afterwards we travelled to Hong Kong for their AGM and to visit several key educational establishments and retailers. The Hong Kong region now 36 years old and is crucial to our links to China. There were several key awards with the top one being John Xin who won a silver medal and the ultimate Fellowship award. There are very key opportunities here in HK and China for our Diploma Courses and consultancy. I would like to thank the committee and the friends of Hong Kong who have made this a very successful region.

I would like to say that or new CEO, Susie Hargreaves, was an excellent ambassador for our company as well as learning about our membership and regional requirements. I am sure she will ensure all membership and regional needs are met in the UK and abroad.

North of England Lecture

I never reported on my lecture to the North of England, Education Education Education. My theme for my Presidency is education and as this is a key theme of the Society as an Educational Charity, the lecture was appropriate. I not only talked about the traditional qualifications but the Colour Experience, and the new Colour Management Diploma Courses. Education is a wide topic if you take Training and Skills into account. The SDC provides publications, electronic news letters and the Colourist to provide news items which can also be called educational. Due to feedback every member should see a new styled Colourist which was announced at the North of England Region. It was great to see a lot of familiar faces

Czech Republic visit 16th 17th October

I attended and gave two lectures at the centenary of the Czech Association of Textile Chemists and Colourist in Dvore Kralove nad Labem, about two hours drive east of Prague. One lecture was about the Society the other was how we can improve efficiency and colour communication through best practice. The Association is part of IFATCC, International Federation of Associations of Textile Chemists and Colorists and there were the Presidents of the Polish, German and Italian Associations also present at this event. I was invited to give a paper at the next International meeting in Italy in 2010. The events showed there is a keen interest for the remaining industries within Europe to share know how and improve the efficiencies of the remaining factories. We also visited where there was a plaque commemorating the start of the Association and a 16th century castle where the current family was also celebrating their centenary of ownership.

Visits this week

This week I attended the second RITE conference in London. (RITE is Reduced Impact of Textiles on the Environment). The SDC sponsored students to attend this conference and had a table at the exhibition manned by Anika and Quentin. The speakers varied from politicians, journalists, world wildlife fund and retailers to suppliers of genetically modified crops. The question and answer session was very stimulating and at times contentious. On Wednesday night I attended the Swan Dinner, invited by the Dyers Company. The dinner was held at the Cloth Workers Hall, another magnificent building in the City of London. I was made very welcome at this dinner in celebration of the Swan Uppings carried out in July. I sat next to my friend and ex President David Blackburn and a major in the Royal Signals whose regiment is sponsored by the Dyers Company. Please visit the Dyers Company Website for more of the history.

Visits in October

Since I have last written in my blog I have been very busy. We have now virtually completed a Visual Standard and Best practice guide for visual and instrumental assessment and have accredited two more tutors in the UK, and one in India for our Colour Management in Textile Diploma Courses. After a successful visit to Hong Kong in July we are returning in November to set up the training program there. Next week I am attending the RITE conference in London and then the Swan dinner at the Worshipful Company of Dyers in London. The week after next I am speaking at the North of England Region and then in Czechoslovakia at the Czech Textile and Colourist Association Centenary. I will certainly report back on all the events!

Back from holiday

I have just come back down to earth after a lovely relaxing visit to Spain. I thought I would show an elevated view of the beach close by the pool at the villa. You can see why I miss it all, having a sangria by the beach and a BBQ by the pool. Anyway back to work and I will keep you posted with the progress of our training courses and the visits to China and Hong Kong.

The President in Hong Kong

I left China to go to Hong Kong and meet with various retailers, research establishments and our Patron Supporters both colleges and Companies. I had excellent and positive meetings welcoming our diploma courses. I held a seminar with over 200 attendees and covered the principles and innovations in colour assessment. The Hong Kong SDC Region welcomed and hosted the events together with HKRITA. I do have to mention special thank you to Clariant who hosted my visits as part of the SDC to some retailers and brands in HK

China Conference

The first joint conference betweeen CTIC, AATCC and SDC was held in Shanghia 23-25th July. It was a great success and congratulations and thanks need to be extended to the organisers, speakers and sponsors. We are planning another in less than two years. You will see all the pictures from the Colourist later but I have included a few photographs anyway. The SDC and AATCC speakers were from Clariant, Dystar, M&S, Levi Strauss & Co, Polo, Luen Thai, J C Penney, Rhode Island University. Thank you from me to all of you what excellent speakers!

Arrival in China

I arrived in Shanghai on Thursday 17th July to a phenomenal heat and humidity. Luckily I didn't have a visit that day just an update of the visits to date made by Ken, Clare and our Chinese consultants and translators Betty Hu and Prof. Dominic Lo. On the following day we went to Jiangnan University where it was my pleasure to present their accreditation certificate for their MSc course in Textile Chemistry, enabling the graduates to apply for the ASDC. In the afternoon we formally inaugurated the new Jiangnan region, the first in The People's Republic of China, and thanked and welcomed the new committee for all their efforts. Again congratulations to all of the committee for all their efforts. Professor Fang, the Jiangnan Chairman, was presented with the prestigious award, the Fellowship of the Society award, only the second Fellow in China and one of the elite group world wide to have had this bestowed on them for their contribution to the colouration industry.

The first seminar of the new region was then held in the afternoon. Ken McGhee and I gave presentations but what impressed us was that two Chinese speakers gave presentations in English on very technical topics, Dr Zhong, from Donghua University, and Dr Wang from Jiangnan University. You will see a report of this seminar when we return to the UK. I will also try and attach a photo of the region and attendees at the inauguration ceremony.

The Royal Garden Party

Well where do I start? The morning began with heavy cloud and it looked as if it was going to rain. The afternoon turned out to be sunny and hot. We entered Buckingham Palace through Grosvenor Gate in order to experience the gardens rather than queue at the Grand Entrance, on the recommendation of a previous visitor. Wow this was some magnificent garden, seemingly some 40 acres with a 3 acre lake. The whole experience is now impressed on my brain as we couldn’t take photographs! First of all, my partner Geoff and I met Adrian (immediate past President) and Mary Abel and we had soft drinks and finger sandwiches with cakes. It was obvious from the good organisation with no queuing that Buckingham Palace had run such an event before!! There were some 5000 people from all parts of society, military from UK, Australia and Canada, the church, , politicians, diplomats, local councillors and chartered societies such as ours.

The National Anthem greeted the Queen and the Royal Party flanked by the Yeomen of the Guard. We lined the ‘walks’ on either sides defined by the Gentlemen in Arms and hoped the Queen would walk down ours as we were at the front! In fact Prince Philip was the Royal who walked down our line. He was fantastic and looked younger than his photographs but he was smaller than we expected around 5 feet 7 inches. He could certainly ‘work the crowd and we were only two feet away from him, really exciting.
We then made sure we could see the Queen as several people again were presented to her, as with Prince Philip, as she walked down the walk way of guests lined on either side like a road. She wore essentially a delicate blue suit and hat that had a delicate brown leaf in the pattern and looked really lovely and relaxed. We walked around part of the grounds and lake seeing the rose garden, it was truly magnificent. Once the Queen and the Royal Party finished their tea they returned to the Palace and we were right at the front watching her walk back, again no more than 3 feet away! Prince Philip followed by Princess Ann, Duke and Duchess of Kent and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Princess Ann looked particularly nice and slim in a green dress and hat.

There were two bands playing at opposite sides of the garden. On the playing of the national anthem we left walking back through the Palace and exited through the Grand Entrance with many tourists pressing their faces to the railings expecting to see very famous people, but just us. Outside we came down to earth and walked back to the car via St James Park and Adrian bought us all an ice cream. What a wonderful day!

Now on to China!

A busy week

Last week was very busy with meetings in the Society but culminated in a wonderful Heriot-Watt University Gala at Galashiels on the 11th July. I wanted to travel by train but there isn’t a railway station at Galashiels so I had to drive the day before. That was an event as I found the A7 was blocked by landslides, due to our wonderful summer deluge of rain, the journey taking me over five hours. The intention was to meet Prof. Roger Wardman to see around his department, as he is the Head of the School of Textiles and Design, but unfortunately I arrived too late. I was met in the evening by the Prime Warden and the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Dyers and David Blackburn, an ex President of the SDC and ex Prime Warden and we had a lovely meal. On the Gala day itself the rain thankfully kept at bay and the graduation awards were held at St Paul’s Church at Galashiels, which was an excellent venue. Earlier this year Vivienne Westwood was given an honorary Doctor of Letters in recognition of her outstanding achievement in fashion and design and it was announced at this ceremony. The students filed to be ‘capped and hooded’ and receive their certificates, mostly female graduates. Afterwards we spoke to the Best Final Student medallist, Alexandra Wild, who had a job at Johnsons of Elgin, and Grace Maran a University medallist for outstanding merit in her third year. We will have to watch out for these names.

Well today is exciting as I am preparing to go down to London to Buckingham palace to the Royal garden party, but I will talk about that later.

Holidays in Spain

Almost one hundred and fifty celebrations of "Moors and Christians" take place over the length and breadth of Spain. The origins lie in the battles following the re-conquest in the 16th and 17th century. As early as the 17th century, groups of "Moors and Christians" drove through town, accompanied by noisy bands. A "battle" ensued with skirmishes and dances, ending with the triumph of the followers of the Cross, who surround the Moors and defeat them. Then it's conversion or death for the Moors, and finally homage to the patron saint of the town. Everything goes on amidst the noise of fireworks and the ringing of bells. This was the case in Moraira where I went on holiday to my villa in Spain for two weeks. I have enclosed some pictures of the groups including Richard the Lionheart as leader of the Christian Crusades. The fireworks are unbelievable. I spent a relaxing time with three different sets of guests. The swimming pool temperature was 30 degrees centigrade!

The 5th International Conference in Mumbai

The conference title and theme was called Global Retail Logic or Magic. I attended last year’s conference and this one was even better. The organisation was fantastic and so professional. Well done Siva and the committee for making such as successful day. Although the monsoons had started that day and certain flights were cancelled there were still 300 delegates. Students from UICT University and College of Home Science, department of textiles and Fashion technology, volunteered as helpers, made the day complete. Well done everyone!!

The speakers were also excellent and you will be hearing all the detail in the Colourist and on the SDC website soon. We saw speakers from Ikea and H&M as well as our own Derek McKelvey and Phil Patterson. A panel answering specific questions ended the conference and was a wonderful educational experience. The theme was best practice and compliance. The lead speaker from Ikea, Mark Astley, actually came from one mile away from where I live in Stretton Warrington, how amazing was that.

Now we are on to the next conference in China on July 23rd to 25th July.

A very special saree

I wanted to honour the Indian SDC by wearing India’s traditional dress at their annual conference. Rakesh, the managing trustee, asked his wife Saloni to help. She did a brilliant job so I thought I would show you the saree. I am indebted to Saloni for making my dream come true and making my conference day special. I shall talk about the conference later, but thank you very much Saloni and Rakesh and I wish you well in London at your daughter's graduation.