Westfield London to host public hackathon with Decoded Fashion
Shopping centre Westfield London is set to host a public hackathon, in partnership with Decoded Fashion, to promote the launch of Westfield Autumn Winter 2014.
The Future Fashion: 24 Hour Hack will take place 20-21 September and allow shoppers to watch and interact with tech start-ups from across Europe, as they compete to create a new way of enhancing the consumer experience for fashion and retail brands in Westfield.
The teams will be briefed to answer one of three Autumn/Winter 2014 key fashion points, including: 'How can we use technology to help shoppers find the perfect item for them?', 'How can we use technology to help make people feel even happier when they’re shopping?' and 'How can we use technology to help consumers make the right beauty choices?'
The teams will work throughout the night with mentorship from industry figures at ASOS, MyFlashTrash, Twitter and Google.
The teams will then present their solutions to a panel of judges including British Fashion Council’s Caroline Rush and Samsung’s Lee Epting.
The winning team will be flown to San Francisco, where they will meet with Westfield Labs’ global chief officer Kevin McKenzie to present their innovation.
Myf Ryan, marketing director UK and Europe said: “The way consumers are using technology when shopping is focused on having control and efficiency, with click and collect, self-service tills, reading online reviews and checking prices the most valued technologies.
"However, recent research carried out by Westfield shows there is also a growing appetite from consumers for technology that inspires and enhances the shopper journey, whether that’s avoiding the need to try things on by using virtual mirrors or making their purchases through e-wallets.”
Decoded Fashion founder Liz Bacelar said the event, the first hackathon in a shopping centre, will "bring the intersection between fashion and technology alive".
A number of different wearable tech products will also be on show over the course of the weekend, including Google Glass, clothing brand CuteCircuit and QDesigns.