The Fashion Forward conference series is back with a panel discussion on artificial intelligence (AI) and tech influences in the fashion industry.

Fashion Forward is a relatively new initiative that started in October of last year when Lamia Boucheneb, Founder & Shop Tourer at The Montreal Fashion Society, and Gabrielle Ferland, Founder at TrendsConnection.ca, came up with the idea of integrating a fashion component into the 2017 Mstyle edition. The two had previously met while coaching young entrepreneurs through the JCCM, and were then reunited by chance and decided to combine their complementary strengths to add value to the industry through this initiative, as well as other ones to come.

“Basically it was started by the Montreal Fashion Society, which I am part of, and TrendsConnection.ca, which Gabrielle is part of,” Boucheneb told MTLinTECH. “What we want to do is to try to stimulate collaboration, try to make people more aware of new tech trends in the fashion industry, and also best practices. We want to see people working together and meeting up more, because in the fashion industry, unfortunately we don’t have as many networking events like that. And sometimes people work in complete solitude. We also want to put an emphasis on the business side of fashion, too. Fashion is an art, and as many artists sometimes focus more on their art than the business side of their art.”

The panel is taking place at the École Supérieure de Mode de l’ESG, UQAM (280 Saint-Catherine E, Montreal QC H2X 1L4), and features a diverse array of speakers working at the intersection of fashion and AI.

“We’ll talk about fashion and AI and also about augmented reality. We have Marwa [Ben Aissa], who is the founder of Shoofping, which is an app that lets you try on eyewear using AI. We’ll also have Joanna [Berzowska], who’s an intelligent textile specialist. She’s really inspiring, she’s collaborated on multiple books and works at Concordia, she’s brilliant. We also have Quentin [Schwaab], who created a software that generates digital patterns and a paperless cutting layout projecting system. And we also have Vincent [Boucher] from Montreal.AI, he’s working on a fashion and AI line. So I think it’s going to be really rich in terms of content, and hopefully it will inspire more people to jump on the fashion tech wagon. To me, fashion on its own is really cool, and when you add that tech element, it brings it to a whole new level.”

Panel Guests:

Vincent Boucher: Founder & President at Montreal.AI & Quebec.AI and a soon to be launched Fashion + AI line.

Joanna Berzowska: Associate Dean Research of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University, Founder & Research Director at XS Labs and Head of Electronic Textiles at OMsignal.

Marwa Ben Aissa: Founder at Shoofping and Business graduate who developed her entrepreneurial skills through different experiences in the startupsphere around the world.

Quentin Schwaab: Cofounder at Litige Mtl and Engineering graduate who created a digital sewing pattern generation software and a paperless cutting layout projecting system.

The event begins at 5:30 pm tonight and runs until 9:00. Click here to get your ticket.