CONFERENCES of the International Wool Textile Organisation have long been feisty occasions.

They also are forums in which Australia's wool industry, particularly bodies such as Australian Wool Innovation and its predecessors, has carried a fair bit of clout.

Not so much because Australia is the world's largest apparel wool producer, but because Australia's marketing and research bodies are the only organisations with real funding.

Now while C&C didn't attend the recent IWTO annual meeting in Paris, by all accounts he hears the meeting was noteworthy because of AWI's silence.

As C&C has noted in recent weeks, AWI is doing its utmost to keep out of any political dogfight, preferring to portray itself as some type of bureaucracy in charge of research and marketing.

Unfortunately, that didn't wash with the 230 delegates, most of whom were representing European and Asian processors. Many of these processors are becoming increasingly concerned or frustrated about the mulesing issue and were no doubt looking for some leadership from AWI.

AWI sent three delegates - chairman Wal Merriman, acting chief executive Stuart McCullough and director Laurence Modiano - none of whom offered a public word.

The other noteworthy issue from the conference was the meeting itself, which was supposed to be run in conjunction with the World Merino Congress in the outer Paris countryside of Rambouillet.

It turned out that because the facilities at Rambouillet were too cramped and the coffee ran out, the IWTO was moved back to Paris

"What do you expect," noted one delegate. "It was organised by the French."

McCullough favoured

STUART McCullough, who has been acting chief executive at AWI since late February, is favoured to win the top job.

But C&C understands that because the board has a heavy agenda, including governance and marketing issues to settle, the decision could be delayed, rather than decided at Friday's board meeting.

An unlisted potential candidate is Steven Read, former manager of Elders Wool and also ABB Pastoral. Mr Read says he is enjoying his new role as business development manager with the processor and exporter Michell.