Crowd Sourcing with AIMIA

The lovely Angelina Russo from Swinburne approached me earlier in the year after she saw me speak at Fashion Palette. She is part of research team at Swinburne currently investigating the role of Crowd Sourcing and User Generated Content in relation to designers.

We met up to discuss this movement and then I began to formulate the angle my talk would talk. I wanted to come from a trend observation point of view and use contemporary case studies. I wanted to discuss how in the current world we live in, we are so technology driven and demanding of others time, that speediness of brands responses to our feedback is imperative and we can actively make or break a brand in milliseconds through social networking. How does this impact on the consumer taking the control of an idea and promoting it Vs the old traditional method, where brands are interactive only with consumers during the selling period of the product.

The case Studies I focused on were: The Sartorialist and his style of recruiting for the Denim campaign for Saba (crowd sourcing was the unique point of difference for this shoot). I Spy Levi's using a jean hunt on twitter to create an interactive campaign allowing 2 touch points - offline and online. Threadless and Milk Shop Gang using the design community to create new designs whilst giving them a cut of the profits. Adidas Originals for their House Party interactive game where they encourage users to upload their photos to "adiatars" to create a house party online and ASOS -and locally Sportsgirl are using forums to generate market research into their own consumers.

So, the seminar was last night at Sensis in Melbourne featuring Adam Schilling from 99 Designs (a crowd sourcing business model for graphic design work) as well as Professor Lyndon Anderson (Deputy Dean of Swinburne). I felt quite out of place after meeting both Lyndon and Adam as their knowledge in this subject far surmounts mine, however it was most definately a stimulating and thought provoking night with many talented designers and interactive developers attending.

WGSN Australian Contributor

A lifelong dream to work with the well reputed WGSN (Worth Global Style Network) came to fruition earlier this year. When I was at RMIT studying, I was introduced to WGSN through a guest lecturer and was overwhelmed that a website even existed in this format talking all about the world of trends, consumer behaviour, tracking where trends come from and evolve too etc.

Having used WGSN in many roles throughout my 20's at various companies and attending the WGSN twice yearly seminars on trends, I was familiar with what the site had to offer from a client point of view but always hoped that one day I might get to contribute to the site as a trend observer.

Finally at the ripe age of 30, having paid some dues and working across a variety of areas within fashion (visual merchandising, retail, design and development, lecturing, marketing and branding) I have a more thorough understanding of how the fashion industry works and in a better position to be an Australian Contributors to WGSN.

My focus is about covering Retail stores, What's in Store and City Guides. My first assignment was to go to Sydney and compile an updated report on where to shop, eat, drink and be inspired in Sydney. A favourite feature on WGSN are the city guides where you can download the print ready guide which gives you the insiders tips to where to go for creative inspiration whilst in that city.

So if you are a subscriber, check it out. It's live next week.

If you think you have a new & exciting store, great inspirational pop up store, gallery launch, window display or installation and want me to report on it. Let me know. Check out my website to get in contact with me.