Now it’s time for me to post one of my summer entries. I mainly take part in conferences in which I am a speaker, even if we’re talking about fashion tech conferences. Simply, conferences consume time and money. And I like when return of investment (ROI) is high.

There are a few exceptions, e.g. WebSummit or others I want to tell you about. I hope you will get inspired to look for some interesting events and conferences in the upcoming 2016/2017 season or even search for next editions of those which I am about to show you now.

In June I participated in:

• Impact ’16 in Cracow,
• Bitspiration in Warsaw,
• Fashion Tech Berlin in…. Berlin.

Impact ’16 in Cracow

According to the description, this is an economy-focused conference. But this year a lot of representatives of innovative companies and startups have arrived. They came from different fields, e.g. Uber, Google, Tesla, AGH University of Science and Technology, Stanford, 500 startups, Estimote, kontakt.io, Seed Labs. One could encounter a great number of more and less experienced entrepreneurs from Poland and Europe.

The slight drawback of this event was the political introduction. For me it lasted too long.

Why should the fashion industry participate in Impact?

There is a lot of technological inspiration, as well as network which is hard to find in any other place. The conference is big and prestigious enough to associate inspiring figures. The event is also small enough to talk freely with people you want to get to know. Moreover, during the conference, I had a possibility to  test a lot of interesting solutions which will definitely have an impact on marketing/retail development, e.g. VR-HTC Vive headset.

The next edition: 31st May/1st June 2017.

Bitspiration in Warsaw as one of the fashion tech conferences

A fascinating, cyclic startup conference. This is an arena where you can meet the latest high-tech minds as well as representatives of larger companies. In my opinion, Bitspiration is mainly a networking event. The conference offers a great support to startups.

Bitspiration originally comes from Cracow but this year it has taken place in Warsaw. I also highly recommend their after parties. This year it was in Campus Warsaw which met the challenge as usual.

Why should the fashion industry take part in Bitspiration?

Event is designed not only for networking. It is also perfect for discussions with innovators – startups. The whole initiative of Bitspiration creates a perfect opportunity to get to know one another, as well as to reinforce the relations with community tech. What’s more, it is one of the events which present a real pro women attitude. This year, women participation has amounted to 42%. In such case, only good stuff can be created.

Fashion Tech Berlin 

One of the few large fashion tech conferences in the world which took place at the end of June as part of the fashion week in Berlin. That was a one-day conference – really inspiring. Fashion Tech Berlin was focused on the most important issues of the high-tech fashion. That might be a good complement for those of you who took part in GGC Fash&Tech in Warsaw or a great first time experience for those who didn’t manage to participate. Apart from the conference, the organizers prepared exhibitions on one of the floors where one could get to know interesting projects mainly from the wearables industry.

Why should the fashion industry take part in FashionTech Berlin?

If you already had the chance to participate in one GGC Fash&Tech event, I assume, I don’t have to explain. If you are not familiar with the idea of fashiontech (how did you get here? :)) there are some reasons for that – the speakers during this kind of conferences speak direclty about the compatibilty of high-tech industry and fashion. During the conference you may meet a lot of creative people from that sector.

Other events I’m going to take part in the following season.

There are no fashion tech conferences on my radar right now, but I’ll take part in tech events… and the one I organize 🙂

WebSummit – I would like to go there because last year the organizers created the first Fashion Summit and what’s more, it is probably the biggest European startup conference.
 Plus they’re moving to Lisbon this year… and I have never been in that city.
Geek Girls Carrots – fashion needs women in high-tech industry. I follow Geek Girls Carrots. I have been the speaker on three meetups so far (in Rzeszow and Cracow). I’m still going to participate in this community. What I find the best in Geek Girls Carrots (of course, except for their initials :D) is that the initiative works all over the world and that’s why the community is really huge! Girls are doing a great work!
GGC Fash&Tech – I’m fighting over the organization of the next season of #ggcmeetup …..keep your fingers crossed because it’s really hard. However, if everything goes well, we will regularly keep creating the #fashiontech community.