8:30 – 9:30 AM
REGISTRATION & WELCOME REFRESHMENTS – Sponsored by Coats
9:30 – 9:40 AM
OPENING
Steve Lamar, Executive Vice President, American Apparel & Footwear Association
(AAFA)
9:40 – 9:55 AM
WELCOME ADDRESS
Mary Tarnowka, Consul General, U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Vietnam
9:55 – 10:35 AM
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Introduction: Coats
Ivanka Mamic, Senior Director, Responsible Sourcing, Target Corporation
10:35 – 11:00 AM
MORNING COFFEE BREAK – Sponsored by Intertek
11:00 – 11:40 AM
UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL PRODUCT SAFETY NEEDS
Niraj Singh, Director, Softlines & Analytical – Asia, Global Technical Services, Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services
Leo Chu, Sr. Product Stewardship Manager, VF Asia
- This session will help you understand how to leverage testing labs to help with product safety and compliance and will also review examples of questions that factories should be asking testing labs.
- Learn how to develop a successful relationship between factory and client, and it all starts with a robust understanding of regulations which testing labs can assist with.
11:40 AM – 12:25 PM
WORLDWIDE REGULATIONS
Kathy Leung, Senior Technical Manager, Intertek Testing Services Ltd.
Joel B. Blank, Regional Consumer Product Safety Attaché, State Department
- Do you know what regulations factories are responsible to comply with?
o CPSIA in the U.S. is 10 years in, do you know what the requirements are?
o There is also REACH in the EU that you need must understand
- What about other countries that have developing regulations? What is the next country to watch?
12:25 – 1:30 PM
LUNCH AND NETWORKING – Sponsored by WRAP
1:30 – 2:10 PM
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY – Part 1
Avedis Seferian, Esq., President and CEO, Worldwide Responsible Accredited
Production (WRAP)
Steve Lamar, Executive Vice President, AAFA
- Forced labor issues throughout the supply chain can be present in areas you may not be aware of, hear about these areas and what you can do to detect forced labor.
- When it comes to these issues, you must look up the supply chain and not just the people in your factory. For example, where do you get cotton from, could there be forced labor involved?
- There are many areas which you as a supplier need to be aware of to protect from forced labor.
2:10 – 2:50 PM
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY – Part 2
Michael Bland, Global Director, AsiaInspection
Tien Le, Senior Sustainable Operations Manager, South East Asia, VF Corporation
David Klein, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Inspectorio, Inc.
- Building safety will forever be an important topic to discuss in depth. Do you know what to look for? What are some improvements you can make, big and small?
- Worker safety, also an inherently crucial topic, is critical to maintaining your reputation. We’ll review best practices to keep workers safe, and to keep workers feeling safe.
- How do you manage both aspects of safety while maintaining profits? This session will address all this and more!
2:20 – 3:15 PM
AFTERNOON COFFEE BREAK
3:15 – 4:00 PM
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
Mallory McConnell, Director, Corporate Responsibility, PVH Corp.
Mohammad Kamruzzaman, Regional Manager for South-East Asia, OEKO-TEX®/Hohenstein
Moderator: Deepak Kumar, Director of Footwear Operations, Impactiva S. De R. L.
- Sustainability is a growing area that consumers are highly conscience of and care deeply about. Due to the consumer demand, brands are requesting more from their factory partners.
- How do you get ahead of the curve and embrace new ideas?
- There are benefits for embracing the environmental and sustainability movements, learn how and why it is good for apparel and footwear suppliers!
4:00 – 4:30 PM
TRADE: FROM THE PACIFIC TO THE ATLANTIC
Steve Lamar, Executive Vice President, AAFA
-In this final session of the day, you will hear about how U.S. trade policy is shaping up to affect Vietnam. We will discuss:
- Recent developments on U.S. tariff policy.
- How the industry is using trade agreements to minimize tariff burdens and assure predictability.
- What AAFA is doing to support the apparel & footwear industry during this time.
4:30 PM
CLOSING REMARKS
Steve Lamar, Executive Vice President, AAFA