(Note: Click HERE to sign up for the Copenhagen event on August 4.)
Transformation Conference is a full-day programme for senior decision-makers in fashion, retail and technology. Held at Stockholm Fashion District during Fashion Week Trade, it puts leaders from fashion and tech on stage to share what is working in practice, not in theory.
The day is built around these shifts now defining the business:
- AI in action: what agentic systems mean for commerce operations, beyond generative marketing
- Data-driven profitability: turning retail data into sell-through, pricing and margin decisions
- Transparency as infrastructure: moving from compliance to commercial value through traceability
Keynotes and panels feature leaders from Nordic fashion brands and the technology partners shaping the sector.
Full programme and speakers to be announced. Sign up to secure your place.
Transformation Conference is hosted by Konrad Olsson, Editor-in-Chief and founder of Scandinavian MIND.
Sign up today to secure your spot
Location
Stockholm Fashion District
Augustendalstorget 6, 131 52 Nacka
Schedule
Programme
09.00–09.30 Welcome
Registration and coffee.
09.30–09.35 Introduction
By our moderator Konrad Olsson, founder and editor-in-chief of Scandinavian MIND.
09.35–09.55 Opening conversation
Trade, technology and Swedish competitiveness
Two flows meet in the room: Swedish fashion selling into export markets, and international technology companies establishing themselves in the Nordics. Benjamin Dousa, Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, joins Helena Waker of Trade Partners Sweden and Stockholm Fashion District to discuss what keeps Swedish fashion competitive as trade conditions shift and as more of the technology running the business is bought from abroad.
Speakers:
Benjamin Dousa, Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade
Helena Waker, CEO, Trade Partners Sweden and Stockholm Fashion District
09.55–10.15 Fireside chat
Transforming a fashion brand from within
Fashion has spent decades working from the inside out, led by function and brand. Linda Pimmeshofer argues the direction has reversed: the business now starts with the customer and works back, and the evidence has to be in the data all the way into product development. In her first year as CTO of J.Lindeberg she has rebuilt roles around processes rather than systems and taken the transformation through the management team. A view of what the job actually involves, including her own rule of building the foundation slowly while testing quickly.
Speaker: Linda Pimmeshofer, CTO, J.Lindeberg
10.15–10.45 Panel
AI in brand building: the direction problem
The industry has stopped asking whether AI matters. The pressure now is to adopt it quickly, which is not the same as knowing what you are building. Stefan Ilkovics has worked on AI and creative production with Cartier, Hermès, Chanel, Dior, Nike and H&M, and holds that AI is a tool rather than a creative force in itself. His argument is that the risk is not falling behind but producing more work with less meaning, and that the case for creative direction gets stronger, not weaker, once production limits disappear. A session on judgement, taste and what brands should be asking of the technology.
Speakers:
Stefan Ilkovics, AI and creativity expert
More speakers to be announced
10.45–11.00 Break
Networking and coffee.
11.00–11.30 Fireside chat
From strategy to ground
Producer responsibility, data infrastructure and the operational reality of sustainability at scale. H&M Group created a global sustainability operations function in 2026 to close the distance between strategy and execution across markets. Marcus Hartmann sets out what extended producer responsibility actually changes in daily operations, what data has to exist underneath it for the claims to hold, and what the industry would need from its technology partners to make the same move.
Speaker: Marcus Hartmann, Head of Global Operations for Sustainability, H&M Group
11.30–12.00 Session
From legislation to line plan
Incoming EU legislation lands on brands as a compliance problem and stays there unless someone translates it into buying, product and process decisions. Lydia Brearley works with brands across the UK and Europe on exactly that translation, bringing 25 years as a buyer to the question of what circular strategy looks like when it reaches the line plan rather than the report.
Speaker: Lydia Brearley, Founder, ENKEL Consulting and Sustainable Fashion School
12.00–12.30 Panel
Designing out waste
A large share of fashion's waste is created before a product is ever made, in the planning, material and development decisions taken early in the cycle. The rest is created afterwards, in the volume that was produced anyway and has to go somewhere. This panel takes both ends: how brands bring data and AI into early decisions to reduce overproduction, and how surplus and deadstock move back into commercial use once they exist. The question running underneath is what has to be true of a brand's product data for either to work, and whether a circular alternative can be made as commercially attractive as new retail.
Speakers:
Daniel Di Benedetto, Regional Director Euro North, Centric Software
Louise Wintzell, Founder and CEO, HIDNstock
More speakers to be announced
12.30–13.30 Networking lunch
Evening: Private dinner for selected guests
Speakers
BENJAMIN DOUSA
Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Government of Sweden
Benjamin Dousa has been Sweden's Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade since September 2024. He previously served as CEO of the Swedish Federation of Business Owners. He holds a bachelor's degree in business and economics from the Stockholm School of Economics and has studied public administration at master's level at the London School of Economics.
HELENA WAKER
CEO, Trade Partners Sweden and Stockholm Fashion District
Helena Waker is CEO of Trade Partners Sweden and one of the founders of Stockholm Fashion District. Her career has been built around national and international trade, with a particular focus on the fashion and textile industry. She sits on the board of ICC Sweden and holds a number of other positions in organisations and projects concerned with fashion and international trade.
LINDA PIMMESHOFER
CTO, J.Lindeberg
Linda Pimmeshofer is Chief Technology Officer at J.Lindeberg, where she is in her first year in the role. She came into the business from a data background and has since taken on a broader remit, rebuilding roles around processes rather than systems and taking the company's transformation through the management team. Her focus is on the shift from working outwards from function and brand to working back from the customer, with data carried all the way into product development.
STEFAN ILKOVICS
AI and creativity expert, co-founder of Naughty Society
Stefan Ilkovics works on AI and creativity across fashion, beauty and luxury, and is co-founder of the generative AI studio Naughty Society. He is Creative Director and AI and Innovation Lead at Puig. Over his career he has worked with brands including Cartier, Hermès, A.P.C., Chanel, Saint Laurent, Dior, Nike and H&M. His position is that AI is a tool rather than a creative force in itself, and that the harder problem for brands is direction rather than speed.
MARCUS HARTMANN
Head of Global Operations for Sustainability, H&M Group
Marcus Hartmann is Head of Global Operations for Sustainability at H&M Group, a function created in 2026 to connect global sustainability strategy with retail operations across markets. He took up the role on 1 July 2026, reporting to the group's Head of Sustainability, with an initial focus on Europe and North America. His work centres on extended producer responsibility, eco-modulation and the data infrastructure that has to sit underneath both.
LYDIA BREARLEY
Founder, ENKEL Consulting and Sustainable Fashion School
Lydia Brearley is a sustainable fashion consultant and the founder of ENKEL Consulting and Sustainable Fashion School. She spent much of her 25 years in the industry as a fashion buyer and now works with brands across the UK and Europe on circular strategy and on aligning with incoming legislation. Her work is practical rather than advisory in the abstract: tools, industry reports and training aimed at commercial teams. She is a LinkedIn Top Voice in sustainable fashion.
DANIEL DI BENEDETTO
Regional Director Euro North, Centric Software
Daniel Di Benedetto comes from an engineering background and has more than 20 years of experience in PLM, AI and big data, of which more than 15 have been in retail. His focus is on how sustainability can drive change while enabling profitability in a complex environment. He leads Centric Software's Northern European sales market and serves on several industry boards.
LOUISE WINTZELL
Founder and CEO, HIDNstock
Louise Wintzell is founder and CEO of HIDNstock, a digital B2B marketplace for sorted secondhand and deadstock sold in bulk. She has worked across the commercial spectrum, from IKEA, where she led product development and circular strategy at global scale, to the smaller and faster-moving Ridestore. Her argument is that a circular alternative has to be as commercially attractive as new retail or it will not scale, and that sustainability works as a bottom-line question rather than an ideological one.
KONRAD OLSSON
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Scandinavian MIND
Konrad Olsson is founder and editor-in-chief of Scandinavian MIND, a platform covering the intersection of lifestyle and technology. He founded and hosts Transformation Conference and writes on the transformation of the fashion industry. He advises companies and organisations on brand strategy, communication and digital transformation.
tc2026
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