Transformation Conference — exploring technological breakthroughs in fashion

Date: 25 May 2023
Time: 9.00–12.00
Location: National Museum of Finland, Mannerheimintie 34, Helsinki, Finland

Conference entry is free of charge, registration here.

Programme

09.00
Registration

09.25 
Opening words
By our moderator Konrad Olsson, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Scandinavian MIND

09.30 Keynote
A look at the EU textile strategy — latest updates and what it means for fashion brands
A fresh update on the latest developments of the new EU directives and what they mean for fashion brands.
Speaker: Mauro Scalia, Director Sustainable Businesses at European Apparel and Textile Federation.

09.55 Panel
The green transformation in the fashion industry
There are a lot of challenges facing the fashion industry, from recycling to transparency to communication. This panel discusses the challenges from a macro perspective and how to solve them.
Speakers:
Marika Ollaranta, Head of Decarbonizing Industries, Business Finland.
Mauro Scalia, Director Sustainable Businesses at European Apparel and Textile Federation.
Kirsi Niinimäki, Associate Professor Design, especially Fashion Research, Research team leader of Fashion/Textile Futures, Aalto University
Emilia Gädda, Chief Advisor, Sustainability and Circular Economy, Finnish Textile and Fashion

10.20 Case study
Innovating textiles through new innovations
A look at how Spinnova has used its technological innovation to help foster transformation in the fashion industry.
Speaker: Shahriare Mahmood, Chief Sustainability Officer, Spinnova

10.35 Interview
Intro to the Young Design of the Year Exhibition
Speaker:
Juha Vehmaanperä, Young Design of the Year 2022 Finland

10.40 Intermission
Coffee and refreshments.
A chance to network and interact.

11.00
ESG 2.0 — a framework for startups
A framework for fashion brands and startups on how to navigate the fast-evolving ESG legal and societal landscapes.
Speaker: Jessica Rameau, Partner, Wellstreet.

11.20
The need for cross-industry, cross-country collaboration
Transformation requires a deep understanding of both existing practices and new innovations. What can fashion brands and tech companies learn from each other? This cross-industry panel discusses how to build bridges.
Speakers:
Olli Kähkönen, founder, Nordic Bioproducts Group.
Jessica Rameau, Partner, Wellstreet
Thomas Håkansson, designer, Swims
Elin Silfvast, Production Manager and Sustainability Lead, Brixtol Textiles

11.45 Case Study
Rester — building an active value chain for textile recycling in Scandinavia
Recycling is one of the hottest topics in the fashion industry’s transformation. Rester wants to foster new collaborations between fashion brands to create new material streams.
Speaker: Outi Luukko, CEO, Rester

12.00
How to commercialize creativity
We discuss how designers can exchange their creativity, and sometimes radical ideas, for commercial success while keeping an eye on the environment.

Speakers:
Alice Bouleau, Principal & Head of Creative Pole, Sterling International.
Robin Douglas, creative director, Swedish Fashion Council.
Tuomas Merikoski, Founder, Aalto Recoded.

12.25 Closing words
Thanks for participating in Transformation Conference
Speaker: Konrad Olsson, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Scandinavian MIND

12.30
Lunch
Networking lunch for speakers and media.

14.00–15.00 Round table
Round table discussions for VIP guests.

Speakers

Mauro Scalia

Director Sustainable Businesses at European Apparel and Textile Federation. 

Mauro Scalia is Director of Sustainable Businesses in EURATEX, the European Confederation of Textile and Apparel industry in Brussels. He is responsible for sustainability in textiles, particularly chemicals, circular economy, climate change, due diligence, ReHubs, and others. He coordinates with the EURATEX membership to engage with the EU and stakeholders over relevant legislation and policies. Scalia graduated cum laude in Political Sciences at the University of Catania, Italy. He joined EURATEX in 2004 after working in business consulting, research and in the European Commission.

Emilia Gädda

Chief Advisor, Sustainability and Circular Economy, Finnish Textile and Fashion

Emilia Gädda is the Chief Advisor for Sustainability and Circular Economy at Finnish Textile & Fashion, the central organization of textile, clothing and fashion companies in Finland. Emilia has a solid experience of more than ten years working with sustainability and circular economy in the Finnish private sector, she joined Finnish Textile & Fashion in the autumn of 2022.

Marika Ollaranta

Head of Decarbonizing Industries, Business Finland

Marika Ollaranta works as Head of Decarbonization of Industry sectors at Business Finland. Business Finland offers innovation funding and internationalization services for Finnish companies. The focus of Marika’s activities is to accelerate Finnish green transition solutions for the textile industry to cooperate with international brands and textile manufacturing companies. Marika has previously worked in international positions, e.g. in marketing, strategy and business development.

Kirsi Niinimäki

Associate Professor Design, especially Fashion Research, Research team leader of Fashion/Textile Futures, Aalto University

Kirsi Niinimäki is a leading scholar in the field of sustainable fashion. She is an Associate Professor at Aalto University where she leads a research group Fashion/Textile FUTURES. The research done in this group integrates closed loop, bio-economy and circular economy approaches in fashion and textile systems and extends the understanding of strategic sustainable design.

Shahriare Mahmood

Chief Sustainability Officer, Spinnova

Dr. Shahriare Mahmood is a sustainability enthusiast, researcher and professional in the fashion industry in his role as Chief Sustainability Officer at Spinnova. He has become a sustainability leader in the textile-apparel industry through the relevant technical expertise and professional experience over two decades in almost all stages of textile-apparel value chain operations. He has deep expertise in process optimization in this industry aiming at environmental sustainability. He is a proponent of product sustainability as a part of total sustainability.

Juha Vehmaanperä

Young Design of the Year 2022 Finland

Juha Vehmaanperä was awarded Young Designer of the Year Finland 2022 and participated in the prestigious Hyéres Fashion Festival. Their work is defined by colourful hand knits and wild combinations of different textures but all in all, it is about having fun while smashing down the gender binary system. Hand knitting and crochet are the main techniques used to showcase slow processes of making whilst perceiving the cultural heritage of craft making and offering new perspectives into it.

Outi Luukko

CEO, Rester

Outi Luukko currently works as the founder and the CEO of Rester Ltd., and as a board member and co-founder at Touchpoint Ltd. Rester Ltd. is a Finnish company offering b-to-b circular solutions and a possibility to recycle waste textiles to new textile fibres and high-quality raw material. TouchPoint Ltd is a Finnish company providing sustainable workwear solutions. Outi’s previous career as an entrepreneur and CEO in the advertising and design industry for 15 years. Outi is an entrepreneur by heart, dedicated to purpose-based business and has expertise in strategic planning and business development. She has been a keynote speaker of circular textiles in many domestic and international forums.

Jessica Rameau

Partner, Wellstreet

Jessica Rameau is a seasoned investment manager with a professional history encompassing advisory, portfolio management, and entrepreneurship. After joining Wellstreet as Chief Investment Officer in 2019, Jessica quickly proved essential and became a partner and the firm’s first fund manager in 2020. Currently, Jessica runs the Wellstreet Ventures Fund I as well as the Wellstreet Launchpad program in collaboration with Google for Startups. Prior to Wellstreet, Jessica was the founder of Five Years Time, an educational platform for entrepreneurs, and an advisor to the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) on innovation.

Olli Kähkönen

Founder, Nordic Bioproducts Group

Olli Kähkönen (M.Sc Econ), is the co-founder, CEO, and Chief Innovation Officer of Nordic Bioproducts Group (NBG), an Aalto University branch working in a field of bio- and circular economy. One of the innovations NBG has made is a novel scalable methodology to produce textile fibres from lignocellulosic materials without using toxic, harmful or complex chemicals.

Thomas Håkansson

Designer, Swims

Thomas Håkansson is a designer and creative director with more than 30 years of experience in design and product development within different segments, such as formal wear, sportswear, workwear, and outdoor. Håkansson has worked with brands such as Marc O´Polo/Dobber, Tiger of Sweden, Peak Performance, Ellegal & Illegal, Björn Borg, Swims, Oscar Jacobson and Fjällräven. Thomas has been awarded with Nordic Design Prize and ISPO Gold and is a member of ISPO Textrends jury. The focus in recent years has been sustainability within all aspects of design and product development.

Elin Silfvast

Production Manager and Sustainability Lead, Brixtol Textiles

Elin is the production manager and the sustainability lead at Brixtol Textiles, with a background in product development. Together with her team, she oversees that each product reaches the highest quality and sustainability possible.

Alice Bouleau

Principal & Head of Creative Pole, Sterling International

Alice Bouleau joined the executive search firm Sterling International in April 2018 where she has since been focusing on the recruitment of Design, Image and Merchandising Talents in the fashion, luxury and retail sectors. She was promoted to Principal & Head of the Creative Pole in January 2021, managing all of the firm’s creative recruitments globally. Prior to joining Sterling, she worked for four years with Proenza Schouler in New York and Paris, first in the Design team and then in the Sales team as the Wholesale Account Executive for Europe. Before that, she worked as a Business Development Manager at Mo&Co, as an Assistant Editor-in Chief at Stiletto Magazine and as a fashion editor.

Robin Douglas

Creative director, Swedish Fashion Council

Robin Douglas Westling is the Creative Director of the industry organization Swedish Fashion Council (SFC). One of the main focuses of the organization’s work is the incubator program SFC [Incubator], where SFC mentor and support emerging fashion brands from Sweden. Taking an Omni-perspective and a 360-degree approach, SFC develops and creates strategies related to business models, investment and sales, PR- and communications, tech- and digitization, branding, and positioning, as well as sourcing and production.​​ Westling is a part of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Digital Fashion (UK), a show committee member at Copenhagen Fashion Week (DK), and a part of the committee of London-based fashion incubator Fashion East’s XLNC-initiative (UK).

Tuomas Merikoski

Founder, Aalto Recoded

Full schedule will be published soon on this page.

Moderator

Konrad Olsson, Editor-in-Chief and Founder, Scandinavian MIND

RSVP HERE