R.I.F.T
“Responsible Innovators for Fashion & Textiles” aka R.I.F.T. took place in 2017 as a satellite event to the Wear It Festival. Exploring the overlap between sustainability and technology in fashion, this conference was the first of its kind in Berlin.
Together with Future Fashion Forward e.V., we curated the programme of keynote speeches, panel discussions and presentations, while hessnatur stiftung, Textpertise Network by Messe Frankfurt and Kreativwirtschaftsberatung Berlin were on board as partners. The forum welcomed more than 80 participants and innovators who combined their expertise to discuss topics including:
- What will the future be like if we keep everything we know a secret?
- What would radical transparency and a sharing-is-caring attitude bring to an ever-changing industry?
- How can we handle innovation responsibly?
Market, Values and Technology
The conference kicked off with a series of short lectures with speakers selected from our extensive European network of experts, namely: Carolin Bohrke (Hessnatur Foundation), Christopher Doering (Fraunhofer Center for Responsible Research and Innovation), Dr. Carolijn Terwindt (ECCHR) and Anne Prahl (PhD/Design Research). Following the introductory talks, attendees were divided into three themed work groups: Market, Values and Technology. Several experts assisted each group to help structure the discussions.
The Market group focused on sustainability as a value driver, economic indicator and success trigger. The Values group held a lively debate on how to bring sustainable values to the market and the consumer. Last but not least, the Technology group focused on how core stakeholders need to achieve responsible innovation and what users need in the future of fashion and textiles.
To conclude the event, there was a presentation of the workshop results in front of the entire audience, after which there was time for further networking opportunities.
Read a full writeup of the results and find out more about the speakers in our R.I.F.T. report.
