Where is the fashion industry heading? International and regional speakers of the Budapest Fashion & Tech Summit will present the most important questions of the fashion industry

A virtual showroom, unique in Central Europe, awaits the viewers of the BFTS

The Budapest Fashion & Tech Summit international conference organised by the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency is starting tomorrow! Professionals from all around the world, 40 speakers from 12 countries will join the event held in English. Those interested can watch the speakers on the event’s official Facebook page for free. The event approaches and presents the fashion industry’s future from the perspectives of sustainability, knowledge sharing, cultural heritage, e-commerce, and changed consumer habits. This year, a world-famous keynote speaker helps in leading the English-language conference.

The Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency (HFDA) organises its free digital conference, the Budapest Fashion & Tech Summit (BFTS), between the 1^st and 2^nd of December. As an integrative organisation, the HFDA initiates an international dialogue with the region’s fashion industry institutions and featuring renowned international experts by realising the professional forum. One of the main goals of the two-day event is to promote collaborative thinking with the neighbouring countries and facilitate an efficient exchange of information.

The experts will join the BFTS’s official Facebook page with live video presentations from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Canada, the United States of America, and other countries. As a novelty, this year, the HFDA steps on the new scene of digital development; thus, the conference will also be available in the digital world of the metaverse called Decentraland. The event will discuss topical subjects such as sustainability, e-commerce, education, technological achievements, or the 21^st-century business models of the fashion industry.

Among the renowned professionals sharing their experience at the conference will be Amanda Cosco, the founder of Electric Runway; Péter Baldaszti, Nanushka’s co-founder and CEO; Chris Burt Allen, influencer; Gili Biegun, editor-in-chief of the Italian Joys Magazine; Matthew Drinkwater, leader of the London College of Fashion’s Innovation Agency; Samata Pattinson, CEO of the Red Carpet Green Dress; and Zadrian Smith, journalist and stylist. Besides the professional discussions touching upon the most important questions of the fashion industry and internationally renowned experts, a world-famous keynote speaker, Suzy Menkes, will lead the event. Viewers can listen to an exclusive talk with the British journalist and fashion critic.

“All in all, 26 experts from 12 countries of the world will speak at the conference. Thus the BFTS provides us with an opportunity of creating an international dialogue through which market actors support each other with professional advice and other tools” – Zsófia Bata-Jakab highlighted. The CEO of the HFDA added: “One of the main goals of the event is to facilitate common thinking, make an efficient exchange of information possible, and find answers together to the questions which affect the future of the fashion industry the most today.”

The first day of the conference will start with the sustainability panel. Its roundtable discussion will discuss the challenges of sustainability and the issues of responsibility in the fashion industry. After the talk, viewers can join a workshop where anyone can ask their questions. In the next panel, the audience can learn about how e-commerce has shaped the fashion industry, and the speakers will approach the industry’s future from the point of view of changed customer habits due to the pandemic.

The second day starts with the education and cultural values panel. The roundtable discussion will reveal the sector’s diversity and complexity and the practices of fashion education. Afterwards, the panel discussions of “fashion business” will analyse the fashion industry of the 21^st century, providing the viewers with useful information about building a career in the fashion industry today. The fashion conference will be closed by a regional roundtable discussion, at which professional representatives of the V4 countries will reflect on the fashion industry’s sustainability challenges. The participants are Dorota Stepniak, creative director of Content-story; Olo Krizova, CEO of the Czech Fashion Council; Zuzana Bobikova, CEO of the Slovak Fashion Council; and Zsófia Bata-Jakab, CEO of the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency. They will have a conversation with Anna Keszeg, cultural researcher. The BTFS’s event pays special attention to channelling the neighbouring countries into the programme this year. By this, the Agency helps the industry actors of the region and the V4 countries to have a more substantial presence on the international scene.

The BFTS is the last stop of the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency’s thematic autumn event series. The Fashion & Design Autumn consisting of five domestic and international events will end with a digital conference. The audience and professionals can listen to its presentations and programmes for free. The English-language event is available at the Budapest Fashion & Tech Summit’s official Facebook page and the Decentraland metaverse. You can rewatch it later on BFTS’s official YouTube channel.