Messe Frankfurt USA, Atlanta-based organizer of Techtextil North America, and the American Textile
Machinery Association (ATMA®), Falls Church, Va.-based sponsor of the American Textile Machinery
Exhibition – International® (ATME-I®) have agreed that ATME-I will be included with Techtextil
North America’s East Coast edition in Atlanta in even-numbered years beginning in 2012. The two
shows first colocated in Atlanta in 2010.
ATME-I — which will present textile machinery and equipment, products and services targeted
to the overall textile and apparel industry — traces its origins to the International Cotton
Machinery Exposition, which debuted in Atlanta in 1881. Other textile machinery expos followed,
organized primarily by New England-based manufacturers. ATMA, which was founded in 1933, became
involved with the expo and moved it to Greenville, where it was held at the Palmetto Expo Center
from 1969 through 2004, traditionally as a quadrennial event. Recognized as the largest textile
machinery exposition in the Western Hemisphere, the show moved back to Atlanta for its 2006 edition
and has been held biennially at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) since then.
Techtextil North America has been held biennially in even-numbered years in Atlanta since
2000, and in 2009 added a West Coast edition to be held in alternate years. Techtextil moved its
location to the GWCC in May 2010 to colocate with ATME-I and SPESA Expo — organized by Raleigh,
N.C.-based Sewn Products Equipment & Suppliers of the Americas (SPESA) — as part of Textile and
Sewn Products Industry Week. The exposition includes a trade show and symposium and presents the
full vertical spectrum of the technical textile/nonwovens sector of the textile industry.Techtextil
North America 2012, including ATME-I, will colocate with Messe Frankfurt’s inaugural Texprocess
Americas expo incorporating SPESA Expo and presenting machinery; plant, processing and information
technology systems; and services for the textile and textile product making-up sector.
March/April 2011
