First day of inaugural virtual conference welcomes 500 delegates from the UK, Europe, Canada, the US and New Zealand.
The first day of the inaugural Sustainability in Licensing Conference has been hailed a success – with some 500 delegates from across the entire spectrum of the global industry dialling in to hear from a variety of speakers, sharing their learnings and experiences.
Running virtually today and tomorrow (November 24-25), SILC opened with conference director, Helena Mansell-Stopher praising the community spirit of the licensing industry and its collective desire to learn how to do things differently.
“One big positive of SILC taking place on this digital platform is that it has allowed us to reach a wider audience and cover multiple markets,” Helena offered. “I am extremely proud to say that we have 500 people joining the Conference today from the UK, Europe, Canada, the US and even as far as New Zealand – if that’s not community spirit, and a desire to learn how to do things differently then I don’t know what is.
“Given the broad reach of the licensing industry – from brand owners to licensees, retailers to trade suppliers – our sector embraces thousands of businesses whose products reach millions and millions of consumers. What is so encouraging is the will and commitment to drive real sustainable change across the industry.”
Helena continued: “It won’t happen over night, but it has been so inspiring to hear of the radical approaches to business practices that are happening now, be it through embracing new materials and production techniques, re-engineering packaging, adopting new marketing methods, all without sacrificing financial growth.”
Companies and organisations as wide ranging as Fashion UK, BBC Studios, Mattel, Natural History Museum, Brandgenuity, FOCO, Hasbro, This is Iris, The Roald Dahl Company, Abysee, TDP Textiles, Pink Key Licensing, Rainbow Designs, BrandsIn, Pure Table Top UK, Change Plastic for Good, WildBrain CPLG, GB eye, Character Options, Joules, Penguin Ventures, Poplar Linens, Chelsea FC, The Point.1888, Dependable Solutions, IPR Licensing, All the Concept House Packaging, Skew, Character World, Signature Publishing, Beanstalk, Golden Bear and Wow Stuff to name just a few heard from speakers from companies including Kids Insights, LEGO, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Teemil, Bambuu Brush, R&A (The Open) Sustainable Sporting Events and Breakdown Plastic.
Helena continued: “For us to learn about how to implement sustainable change, we need to look inside our industry to those leading in this area and share best practice, as well as outside the industry to learn new skills, extend our network and start to imagine what our business could look like through a totally different lens.
“As an industry we are always looking ahead to create the new trend so future thinking is something that we are definitely used to doing, but to drive sustainable change we need to add one more lens to our future thinking and close up our knowledge gap. Over the next two days I am hoping the Conference presentations and panel discussions will inspire and inform, fill in some of your knowledge gaps and spark new ideas for your sustainable journey.”
The Wombles were also on hand to help kick start proceedings, as well as popping up throughout the course of the day.
Day two of SILC 2020 will take place tomorrow – Wednesday November 25. Simply click here for further details.
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