The Australian Fashion Council warmly invites you to a webinar on Accelerating the Shift Towards Sustainable Change, supported by City of Sydney.

The session will focus on how technology can help progress the Australian fashion industry to a more responsible future. The expert panel will explore the solutions that exist in the fashion technology space that can help enable fashion businesses to reduce waste, increase supply chain transparency and streamline supply chain operations. They will also explore what is needed to move forward as an industry with world-class innovation.

Facilitated by Alice Sidhu, a business transformation expert and digital authority, the session will feature an expert speaker panel that includes Natalie Johnson (Co-Founder & CEO of 3D Robe), Pete Smit (Founder & CEO of Style Atlas) and Adrian Jones (Co-Founder of Blocktexx and Executive Director of Pop Up Digital).

Tickets are free for AFC members and City of Sydney businesses (please email info@ausfashioncouncil.com for the discount code). General admission tickets are $15.

Image Credit: Hard Copy by Noa Raviv

From left to right: Alice Sidhu, Natalie Johnson, Pete Smit, and Adrian Jones

Alice Sidhu | Business Transformation Expert and Digital Authority

Alice Sidhu is a business transformation expert, digital authority and board member, with over twenty four years experience working with organisations to improve their operations, drive their innovation agenda, and find new ways to grow. Her diverse industry experience includes retail, telecommunications, IT, mining and public sector.

Having held senior global roles in many multinational organisations as well as leading complex initiatives across the Asia Pacific has given Alice a unique insight into how organisational ecosystems operate and how they need to evolve for what’s coming. Her breadth of experience encompasses all things digital including navigating digital disruption, strategy, operating models, process re-engineering, risk, business delivery, commercial models, new skills, and change. She can demystify what it means to be digital, the possibilities of AI, and why Blockchain is a lot more than Bitcoin, explaining in simple business terms what it can do, and why you should care about it.

Having left a corporate career, Alice's focus continues to be on all things digital. Alice is a director of LIVLAB, a start up defining a new generation of health, an Associate with Melbourne Business School where she teaches digital transformation, an advisor to a venture capital company and a mentor for Moonshot. She is also a Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Foundation Board and advisor to numerous startups.

Natalie Johnson | Co-Founder & CEO of 3D Robe

An incredibly passionate fashion technologist with over 15 years experience in Fashion Buying and Tech, Natalie has worked in software companies specifically targeting industry best practice, with a view to move the fashion towards being less wasteful, more circular, sustainable and ethical all whilst utilising the latest technology.

Natalie is also a keynote speaker who has been sought out to speak on Digital Fashion + 3D Design for the Legacy Summit hosted by Vogue, Conde Nast in London and Women in Tech meetups at Atlassian. She is personally interested in reducing waste in the fashion industry, virtual fit tech and fashion gaming worlds. Her past clients include: Farfetch, The Iconic, Good On You + Woolmark.

Pete Smit | Founder & CEO of Style Atlas

Before founding Style Atlas Pete built up a wealth of experience in the retail industry, starting his career working in a fashion boutique in London’s Regent St and then becoming Merchandising Manager for the UK’s first Harley-Davidson designer store concept. Pete spent over a decade with Harley-Davidson in marketing and senior management roles in both the UK and Australia, finally managing Australasia’s largest Harley-Davidson importer/distributor.

Also a designer he left the motorcycling world to found creative consultancy, VisionSmiths; working on projects across the fields of brand identity, environment design and increasingly over its lifespan, web design and development. VisionSmiths projects included, management of the design, construction and launch of the groundbreaking Fraser Motorcycles Flagship Sydney store which won the 2009 Belle magazine/Georg Jensen Design Award for ‘Best Commercial Interior’ and the project management and design development of Neild Avenue Restaurant for the Icebergs Group, which won “Hottest Design” in The Australian 2012 Hot 50 Restaurants Awards.

Style Atlas' objective is to help the fashion industry transition from the inventory led, mass production model of the 20th century to one that is agile enough to keep up with the demands of the modern fashion consumer and most importantly is sustainable, from both an environmental and commercial perspective.

Adrian Jones | Co-Founder of Blocktexx and Executive Director of Pop Up Digital

As an ex-retailer, Adrian believes the retail industry needs to be more innovative, braver and demonstrate a clear social contract and a licence to trade; it needs to become more sustainable, more innovative; more cost effective and embrace emerging technology to showcase their brand to increasingly savvy consumers.

We need to deal with our waste ourselves, and stop exporting the problem. BlockTexx is a world leading chemical textile recycling and resource recovery business, who have developed a patent pending technology that diverts textiles and clothing away from landfill and accelerates the global textile recycling industry. This process uses our patent pending S.O.F.T.™ technology.

PopUp Digital is about creating tomorrow's immersive digital experiences and displays, that bring digital experiences to consumers, whilst reducing the need for plastic and e-waste. They are working with brands, businesses and governments to create tomorrow's digital cities and immersive experiences, using patented film technology that lowers both financial and environmental costs.