II edition of the Fashion Entrepreneurship 101 program in Miami comes to an end
From February 28th to March 11th, the second edition of "Fashion Entrepreneurship 101: Building a Successful Brand", ISEM's program focused on entrepreneurial designers, took place in Miami. The classes were held in Spanish at Babson College, one of the world's leading academic institutions in entrepreneurship.
05 | 04 | 2022
17 participants from 6 countries (United States, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile and Spain) have put in the hours over two weeks to develop their business plan, prepare a pitch to investors, buyers and publishers, create their sales, marketing and social media strategy, work with the press, organize a trunk show, work with influencers and learn everything involved in the development and production of a collection.
"Fashion is a huge and very competitive industry and learning from international experts is essential. I recommend 100% this program that has allowed me to keep dreaming to give more work to people through fashion", said Diana Contreras, one of the participants at the end of the program.
The faculty consisted of a diverse group of teachers, communicators and professionals from different areas of the fashion industry. For example, Leonor Silva, director of international relations at ISEM, was in charge of opening the first day and giving lessons on product development, sales plan and distribution. Or Kelly Talamas, former editorial and creative director of Vogue Mexico and Latin America, who explained the importance of brand DNA and developed how to communicate it.
In a conversation with José Forteza, senior editor of Condé Nast Latin America (Vogue Latin America), and influencer Pam Arias explained how the relationship between influencers and brands works, what kind of contracts they use, how to measure the return on investment, etc.
The bootcamp also included some workshops and practical exercises. One of them was led by Gustavo Trindade, director of Babson's Miami Campus. Divided into groups, the students first had to make a puzzle and then create a story with different materials about "Water". "As you have experienced, being an entrepreneur is more like the latter, because it is not about putting together something that someone else has thought of, but about creating and marketing the product at the same time," he said.
Marta Lastra, COO of the Altuzarra group explained to the students the production cycle, costs and how to negotiate prices with factories. Financial topics were also addressed in the classes of José Antonio de Cote and Mónica Vázquez, CEO of Abanca USA, who gave a session on how to present a business plan to a financial institution. In addition, Nacho Gallardo, professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Navarra and startup mentor, explained how to develop the same business plan.
Finally, branding and marketing were taught by Esther Uhalte, Global Consumer Marketing at Estée Lauder and Pedro Mir, ISEM professor and mentor, with whom the students developed their marketing plan and strategy.
The "Fashion Entrepreneurship 101" program also includes one-to-one mentoring sessions to help students think about how to apply what they have learned in class to their brands: Coco Jewel, Delosantos, Mozzafiato, For Shoore, Lorenza Bas, Textiles Montserrat, Soluaconcept, Frame Factory, Fosh, Mira, Owfit, Lune Salée, Mane Chadwick, Isla Maria, and some freelancers.
The program ended with a contest sponsored by Abanca USA. In it, each participant presented their final pitch, focused on investors. The jury was formed by Monica Vazquez, Kelly Talamas, Nacho Gallardo, Leonor Silva and Clarissa Padula, from the investment group Stelac Advisory Services. The winner was Peruvian entrepreneur Victor Montalvo, of the DELOSANTOS brand, who was awarded an iPad by Monica Vazquez.
Interested in this program? Ask us at here information about the next edition.