Melange Live brings technology and fashion together for LA conference

Located in the Fashion District’s New Mart building, Melange held its first ever technology and fashion infused conference for forward-thinkers in the fashion industry. The two-day event took place in Los Angeles on September 16 and 17.

The conference linked and engaged local audiences in Los Angeles that deal with retail and how technology plays a role in that. The idea is to bring together like-minded people that can exchange ideas and communicate about the changing ways of technology in fashion. The reason the event’s first conference took place in Los Angeles was due to the growing e-tailer business in the area. “Los Angeles has really almost become the epicenter of technology,” said Rick Stark, executive director of Melange. “[Silicon] Valley started it, but now we have Silicon Beach and it’s really changed the game,” said Stark.

Exhibitors included new, innovative apps based on fashion-marketing details, analytics, and more. A couple of participating exhibitors were Active Booth, Privo, OneStop, Listrak, AgilOne, and more. The conference also included speakers and tastemakers from various fashion companies such as Fashion Tap, Toms, Love Goodly, Stone & Cloth, JustFab, and more. Focused sections of the event included emphasized looks at consumer trends in mobile and digital, the evolution of digital chat, online and in-store buying, and more. “[The event] will bring forward thinkers together talking about what they’re doing in fashion or e-commerce, and how they’re both changing everyday,” said Stark.

LA Conference brings together technological advancements for fashion industries

One of the exhibitors of the event explored data tactics in shopping habits from in-store interactions to email engagement. AgilOne is a technological app that acts as a predictive marketing cloud that can inform marketers on individual customers’ online and offline shopping habits. The idea of the app is to understand the customer and bring the right information to the marketer to approach the customer in the right way. “[We] provide predictive analytics so that marketers can target each person appropriately on how they wanna be targeted without bothering them,” said Justin Marinovich, enterprise account executive of AgilOne. The reason the company decided to join the conference is due to its Los Angeles influence. “It’s a very localized event,” said Marinovich. The event itself is located at the New Mart building, which is home to over 50 brands and is located firmly in the heart of downtown’s Fashion District. “It’s not like [other events] where it’s so massive and nobody’s gonna remember,” said Marinovich, “Everyone here is primarily from the local area, so it’s a little more personal and still casual at the same time,” said Marinovich.

The two-day event was able to bring together various influencers from technology and fashion in order to take a further look on how apps and online buying is affecting the industry. Because technology is always changing, the idea of Melange is to get ahead of the game when talking about these effects that will take place. Ultimately though, the conference’s sole purpose is about the customer. The conference introduces exchanges on how to use this information properly in order to engage the customer. “People are here today to share thoughts, share concepts, and make it a better experience for the consumer at the end of the day,” said Stark.

Melange Live hosts two-day forum at New Mart in LA’s Fashion District

Melange was founded by Tom Keefer, Cindy Keefer, and Steve Brown. The conference was formed with a vision of creating a long-term platform designed to serve both the fashion and technology communities. The platform provides a forum for industry leaders to meet and openly exchanges their ideas, practices, and insights. The emerging platform debuted this 2015 event as their first-ever conference. The conference will continue as a bi-annual event forum.