What disrupts Fashion? Creative Meets Tech conference

Poq co-founder Michael Langguth has been recently busy sharing his wisdom on conferences (as well as in newspapers). After giving a talk on the future of mobile in retail, last Friday he was again one of the panelists at the Creative Meets Tech event organised by Capital Enterprise in cooperation with Camden Collective.

The panel, chaired by Jonas Altman from London College of Fashion, included two other speakers: Dean Frankhauser from Nuji and Amanda Baker from Pink Mothballs (who, coincidentally, was featured recently on our blog). The debate was held under a general question of ‘What is Disrupting Fashion?’

One of the most interesting parts of the panel discussion was predicting the short-term trends for the fashion industry.

For Amanda Baker, two important trends to watch would be firstly the interaction between fashion and mobile technology; secondly the rise of social networking and how people increasingly buy into street fashion and become inspired by what they see worn on the streets rather than on the catwalks.

Dean Frankhauser predicted in the longer term a mass consolidation of online retailers – something that is already happening to the high street. He draws his conclusion from the fact that on his website Nuji there are over 40k retailers present – a number larger than there is the demand for, and many of them offering similar products.

For Michael Langguth, the important trend in the nearest future is that more and more brands are selling directly to consumers – something that is certainly encouraged by more easily accessible m-commerce and is observed with excitement by us here at Poq – after all, we love working with brands.

Addressing the question of the ‘death of high street stores’ mentioned by Jonas, Michael spoke also on behalf of Poq saying that there are lots of ways in which mobile can actually help to bring customers back into the physical stores – for example through personalised push notifications tied to location.

As the event gathered people from London’s booming tech and creative start-up community, some attention was given to the questions from audience regarding setting up and launching your own business, especially in fashion. Predictably, bloggers were mentioned as very powerful allies and the means to promote your website or company in the initial stage. Michael advised also on finding a niche for the business and being genuinely interested in it.

Overall a stimulating conference, if you’re interested keep on the lookout for more events like that from Capital Enterprise!