It's time to roll up your sleeves (and possibly create some new ones) during our hands-on pre-conference workshop!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

8:00 Registration

Workshop #1 - 8:30- 12:00 pm - THE NEXT WAVE - ENTREPRENEURS IN FASHION TECH

Who should be there?

The target audience for the seminar consists of (i) those considering or already launching or engaged in start-up businesses based on intellectual property in the fashion space, (ii) those interested in investing in such businesses and (iii) those companies who are or will be strategic partners to such businesses.

What will be discussed?

1. Anatomy of the industry. What is fashion-tech and why has it suddenly become popular? Who are the entrepreneurs and how important is "hard" science? Who are the investors and how important is geography?

2. Sources of startup ideas and technology. How common are first time entrepreneur versus large company spin outs or university R&D? The large role of e-commerce.

3. Sources of Capital. Where do these businesses find initial funding? What is the attitude of the institutional venture community toward the space? How are active are strategic investors?

4. Transactional Vocabulary. A review of basic terms and standard practices in seed financing and venture investment transactions. An additional short discussion of key strategic deal terms.

5. Common pitfalls for Founders. We will discuss tax traps, employee equity and other similar danger zones for young companies and their investors.

With your help, we can collect questions and real experiences in advance and cover these topics directly in the discussion, using the present founders as real time case studies. Personalize your conference by emailing your thougths on the the topic to Conference Director, Barbara Fowler at bfowler@smithers.com.

Raymond Thek, Member of the Firm, Lowenstein Sandler

Workshop #2 -- 1:30 - 5:00 pm - DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR WEARABILITY

Designing takes on new meaning in the information age. Join this workshop for a hands on method for applying Human Centered Design to wearable/textile based projects. You'll come away with a toolkit of methods you can apply. Bring specific problems or challenges to the workshop and we'll think through how to take a Human Centered Approach to solving them.
Francine Gemperle, Senior Design Strategist, Maya Design

Testimonials

For those in the Smart Fabrics space looking to turn their innovations into a business, for those with a nascent company or for those looking to acquire or license innovative technologies this is the one seminar you can't do without. Ray Thek is one of the nation's leading venture deal lawyers with unique experience and insights on what it takes to make a small tech company successful and how to avoid pitfalls that many fall into.

This seminar will help you navigate the language of start-ups, explain how to raise funds, provide understanding of the current business climate towards fashion tech, identify key things that small companies needs to do to be an attractive business partner for larger firms or even to get acquired. This seminar is a crash course in getting your company started and moving towards success. It also is a primer for larger firms looking to source innovation from outside.

In my personal observations, there has been a naive quality to many entrepreneurs who enter our fashion tech space, often coming with a deep science or design background. If you don't arm yourself with some fundamental business tools to navigate success it leads to missed opportunities. I urged Ray to do this seminar as I feel our emerging industry has lacked some of the savvy insights that tech entrepreneurs seem to have in other industries. Fashion Tech is on the rise and we entrepreneurs need to be prepared to meet the growing interest in our community. Ray is one of the most intelligent, candid, honest and practical tech start-up experts you will find. Having Ray here at the Smart Fabrics conference is a coup, and getting a few hours of his time is well worth yours!
-- Stacey Burr, VP, Adidas; Advisory Board Member, Smart Fabrics Conference

Additonal Fee Required: $499

Note: sign up quickly as Smart Fabrics workshops have sold out months before the conference in the past!