Where technology and fashion converge
With future fashion technologies from wearable devices to innovative materials and augmented reality set to revolutionise our lifestyles, health and the way we look, Cambridge Wireless (CW) has organised a major London conference to focus on the exciting opportunities as well as practical challenges presented by the convergence of fashion and technology.
Seen by many as this year’s biggest buzz within the technology industry, the wearable technology market is predicted to grow rapidly over the next few years, driven by both specialised technology start-ups and global giants. At the CW ‘On Trend - High Fashion Meets Technology’ event on Thursday 27th March, leading industry experts will address the need for products which are fashionable, desirable and useful; the opportunities which new advances in technology bring; the challenges to overcome for successful product design; the barriers to mass market adoption; and the opportunities for alliances and partnerships between the fashion and technology industries.
Significant investments are being made in a race to bring new products to market, and learning from early adopters is essential to create new categories of wearable products. In order to grow the market and for widespread adoption of these new gadgets there is growing awareness by technology companies of the need to understand and embrace the world of fashion.
Peter Whale, Board Member, CW and Future Devices SIG Champion, says: “This event acknowledges the essential relationship between fashion and technology in the emergent “wearable technologies” space. Technology makes amazing new experiences possible; fashion designers create products which are attractive and desirable and help us to express our identity. In order for a new generation of wearable technology products to be successful in the market, both the fashion and the technology industries need to speak each other’s language and to partner together to make successful products. This event is set to be an important catalyst for encouraging these conversations to occur and facilitating future market success.”
Dr Sally Day, Senior Lecturer, UCL comments: “Design is a vital part of engineering so I am sure that this Cambridge Wireless event on fashion and technology will find more in common than a cursory glance might expect. Technology is developing at astonishing rates and much has been made recently of 'wearable' technology, but for this to be truly successful it is vital that the design is right and this can only happen with the technologists and fashion designers communicating and practicing engineering together.”
Soraya Jones, Chief Executive, CW said: “We have a premium panel of speakers from fashion design, material science and wireless technology, including Sonny Vu of Misfits Wearables and Francesca Rosella of CuteCircuit. Our carefully prepared agenda will deliver presentations, interactive sessions and workshops designed so delegates have every opportunity to extend their learning.”
Set in the historic surroundings of University College London, On Trend – High Fashion meets High Technology will be taking place on Thursday 27th March 2014 from 09:30.
Providing essential insights and unrivalled networking opportunities are hallmarks of CW events. Chairing this particular SIG event are SIG Champions Abhi Naha of Zone V, Peter Whale of Qualcomm and John Roe from Accenture, with the interactive design session chaired by Geoff McCormick from Alloy. For more information or to register for this event, please visit the Cambridge Wireless website: www.cambridgewireless.co.uk/events
About UCL (University College London)
Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine.
We are among the world's top universities, as reflected by our performance in a range of international rankings and tables. According to the Thomson Scientific Citation Index, UCL is the second most highly cited European university and the 15th most highly cited in the world.
UCL has nearly 27,000 students from 150 countries and more than 9,000 employees, of whom one third are from outside the UK. The university is based in Bloomsbury in the heart of London, but also has two international campuses – UCL Australia and UCL Qatar. Our annual income is more than £800 million.
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About UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering
The Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at UCL was the first department of Electrical Engineering to be established in England, founded in 1885, and now comprises some 200 researchers working on topics in communications and information systems, electronic materials and devices, optical networks, photonics and sensors, systems and circuits, with turnover exceeding £14 million. It has consistently been rated among the top ten UK Departments in its subject area in the UK Government's Research Assessment Exercise. In 2009, alumnus Sir Charles K. Kao received the Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of low loss optical fibres and their application to global communication systems. Since 2011 the Department has been awarded three EPSRC Programme Grants, totalling £18 million for work in photonic information and communication technologies and nanoelectronic quantum devices. In 2012 the department was awarded ‘Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department of the Year’ in the European Electronics Industry Awards.