Students engaged in interpersonal dialogue with industry experts at IIAD’s Industry Conclave 2022.
The Indian Institute of Art and Design (IIAD) hosted Industry Conclave 2022 on the theme ‘Disruption and Opportunities’.
Held in a World Café format, the offline conclave saw industry experts with reputable fashion brands and interior design firms as well as academics engage with cohorts of students in group discussions. This allowed the flow of ideas and exchange of dialogue with the current fashion design, fashion business management and interior architecture and design students of IIAD.
Dialogue on sustainability, green marketing, the rise of athleisure wear, Metaverse and global certification in the fashion industry were raised by the fashion design students. Interior architecture students discussed topics like the disparities between the way architectural/interior design is practised post the pandemic, the use of biodegradable materials and leveraging lightning speed algorithms to create complex structures and 3D models.
More than 20 fashion and interior architecture brands engaged in the event through both online and offline media.
Presiding over the event from the fashion industry were Akash Ashesh, Visual Merchandiser, Aditya Birla Fashion Retail; Humaam Arifeen, Director, Headway Consults; Kavya Arora, CEO, Femella Fashions; Rahul Bhalla, Founder, Latin Quarters and Mrinal Jain, Head of Design, Asmara International. Rohit Gulati, Founder, Incubis; Mohit Kansal, Founder, Studio Strato; Shivani Mittal, Co-founder, Lalittya; Abhishek Bij, Partner, Design Plus Architect; and Sourabh Khurana and Ritika Malik, Co-founders of PLUGD were noteworthy participants from the interior architecture and design industry.
Speaking of his interaction with the students, Jain said, “The students were very enthusiastic. They were very keen to know and learn what the industry experience is. The kind of questions posed were very interesting and I think based on that there is a huge potential.”
“There is always a divide in academia and professional practice. Events like these are really helpful for both the students and us industry experts to have these conversations. Some of the questions that the students had prepared really challenged us to put on our thinking hats. I really enjoyed the conversation,” Bij said.
By encouraging interpersonal dialogue at the conclave, the IIAD created a transparent environment for interaction between industry experts and students. This explored the gap between the expectations of the employers and the aspirations of the youth.