2024 Speaker BIOS

Specialties: A systems thinker and problem solver with deep experience in circular and sustainable business development and strategy.
Circularity and circular economics
Sustainability Strategy development and implementation
Environmental and Social supply chain management
Sustainable Sourcing and Production
Textile recycling system, circular economy and innovations.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• 2024 ApparelCamp Keynote & Breakout Session: " A mindset for Circular" with Bettina Hobson

I work with clients across various sectors, including building materials, CPG, automotive, biotechnology, and fashion in order to to help them reduce their environmental impact, optimize their resource efficiency, and increase their competitive advantage. I have expertise in circular fashion, sustainability strategy, and data analysis. With over 10 years of experience in supply chain management, consulting, and education -I integrate theory of change into operational practice. I contribute to thought leadership and research on how the circular economy principles can create paradigm shifts for a better world. My work can be found in talks I have delivered, courses I have created, and articles I have written on the topic of sustainability, circularity, and supply chain. My commitment to environmental justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion is integrated with my work, and how I problem-solve and work with teams. I am a global citizen, fluent in English and French, and committed to advancing circularity and sustainability in the fashion industry and beyond.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - A Mindset for Circular

Specialties: USMCA, CUSMA, NAFTA, Trade Compliance, C-TPAT/PIP, Customs Compliance and pre-audit preparation.Non Resident Importer Specialist.

PROPOSED TOPICs:

• 1) How to Lower your Import Duties
  2) Utilize De-minius Rules for Export Around the Globe

Glynis is a clothing brand owner turned Business Consultant & SEO Specialist with 20+ years apparel industry experience. She helps fashion entrepreneurs and clothing brand owners launch, build and grow their fashion e-commerce business. She’s the founder of Chase Your Dreams, which is an apparel consulting agency that specializes in SEO for fashion e-commerce companies who want to increase organic traffic, rank higher in search engines and make more sales online. She's also the host of Chase Your Dreams Podcast. This is a podcast for fashion entrepreneurs who are ready to pursue their passion and make a living doing what they love. Glynis has expertise in technical design, product development, domestic and overseas garment manufacturing, fabric sourcing, new business development, and search engine optimization. She has been featured on the front page of the business sections of the Vancouver Sun, National Post, The Globe & Mail and has been interviewed on CBC Radio.

PROPOSED TOPICS:

• How to Write SEO-Friendly Content to Help Your Brand Stand Out

As a Product Consultant, James specializes in helping businesses unlock remarkable growth. As a Senior Merchant for MEC, he oversees a $60M product portfolio, collaborating with some of the outdoor industry's major brands. But before all that, James was an engineer and startup founder. His primary goal is to offer entrepreneurs the guidance and support he wished he had many years ago. Visit VenturingUp.com to learn more!

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• Behind the Curtain of 5000 Products: The Secrets to Create Explosive Growth

For over 17 years, Louise Green has been a leader in making fitness more accessible for people with larger bodies. She is a published author, educator and an award-winning fitness trainer who has impacted thousands of lives by her mission to create a more inclusive fitness landscape. Green has authored two books, Big Fit Girl, and Fitness for Everyone and founded the Size Inclusive Training Academy where she educates and consults fitness and wellness professionals along with active apparel brands to better understand the larger bodied lived experience and hone a more inclusive offering.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - Cultivating a Size-Inclusive Apparel Brand

James Retty has been in the outdoor specialty industry since the 90’s. He has been that keen floor kid, a young sales rep, a division leader, a sales manager and ultimately an outdoor specialty business owner. He took that solo store and grew it’s presence and profitability. His business was an early adopter of specialty e com starting escaperoute.ca in 2006. Eventually James his had branded Escape Route stores and an ARC’TERYX corporate shop in both resort and urban settings. Outside of the retail trade he has been a raft guide in Canada and Europe and worked in the snow safety world for 3 decades. With 4 grown kids and an amazing wife it has been a great ride. His consulting company, Uptrack Solutions works at harmonizing specialty outdoor retail and a vendor’s direct to consumer sales channels. James has sat on all sides of the experience delivery table and loves it!

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - The Outdoor Retail Trade as a Conduit for Humanity

Miranda Sam is the founder of SHORTLISTED (www.theshortlisted.co), an elevated clothing line for short women (5'4" and under) who are short on time. She’s also worked as a Fashion Marketer, Retail Manager, and Fashion Journalist in a career spanning 15 years. Miranda has also been a guest speaker at VCC, JCI, UBC and looks forward to hosting the speed networking session at ApparelCamp.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - Power of (Speed) Networking

I have a healthy(?) obsession in developing a regenerative, circular economy and using new technologies that enable circular business models transitions with aligned financial, social and environmental incentives - so we can maximize our quality of life today and for thousands of generations to come.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - Circularity and Digital Product Passports (DPPs)

Darja Zlindra, a seasoned Garment Prototype Developer with over 20 years of experience, specializes in creating prototypes. Her journey began with a Bachelor of Science in Textile Technology from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, followed by a career at a Textile Woven Mill where she honed her skills in jacquard looms.
Relocating to Canada, Darja immersed herself in the garment industry, completing a Fashion Art Certificate diploma and mastering pattern making, grading, and sample creation. With a focus on made-to-measure garments, she recognized the limitations of traditional 2D pattern making and embraced 3D software to revolutionize the prototyping process.
Combining her expertise with Optitex and Gerber patternmaking software, Darja streamlines the design process, bridging the gap between designer vision and patternmaker execution. By investing in 3D technology such as Optitex 3D and Clo 3D, she eliminates the unknowns between patternmakers and designers.
Darja's presentations guide audiences through efficient brand collection creation, showcasing the power of technology to enhance workflow and collaboration. Her dedication to innovation and sustainability drives her to continually push boundaries in the fashion industry, creating garments that fit perfectly and contribute to a more eco-conscious future.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - Save time and money with 3D Pattern Making

Sarah Murray has worked in the business of fashion for over 20 years in a variety of capacities. Currently, she is Vancouver Community College's fashion program coordinator and is hoping to present at ApparelCamp in her capacity as board member of the BC Apparel and Gear Association. When she isn’t on campus, she is building community through her facilitation work.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - Mapping the Local Fashion System

Serena Neumerschitsky is Owner and Principal Consultant of SEA45 Compliance, Consult & Creative, a Canadian Digital Marketing & Management Firm that coaches small businesses, not for profits, government projects, and educational institutes through navigating, optimizing, and streamlining business identities in the digital economy. As a lover of all things design and mentoring Serena has a degree in Fashion, Design and Technology, from The Wilson School of Design, and has shared that knowledge building and teaching Design and Technology programs at The Wilson School of Design, LaSalle College Vancouver, Okanagan College, and North Island College. Before devoting herself to education and entrepreneurism full time, Serena spent a decade in apparel working with brands such as MEC, Cannondale, Sugoi, Sport Chek, Atmosphere, Canadian Tire, Mark’s, Diadora, McKinley, Firey, Huntshield, Woods, Outbound, Bootlegger, David Suzuki, Vancouver Canucks and many more.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - AI Mastery for Entrepreneurial Success

Ana Carvalho is a versatile professional renowned as a Fashion Designer, Stylist, Educator, Author, and Content Creator. Currently, she serves as an educator in fashion design and fashion styling, while also holding the position of Social Media and Content Coordinator at LaSalle College Vancouver. Ana holds a Master's degree in Fashion Styling from Instituto Marangoni in Milan, Italy, where she refined her skills while collaborating with prestigious brands such as Dolce and Gabbana and John Galliano. With over 15 years of consultancy and educational experience, Ana specializes in developing methodologies in Personal Branding, Fashion Design, Styling, and Color Strategy. Notably, she recently developed and led "The Fashion Games" a fashion competition initiative challenging fashion designers to create garments in 6 hours using methods like zero waste and upcycling. Her recent work, "Methods of Fashion Upcycling", aims to prompt designers to reconsider garment creation by maximizing available resources through various conceptual frameworks, from macro to micro conceptualization, in pursuit of reshaping fashion systems. Having lived and worked in fashion capitals such as Milan, London, New York, and Brazil, Ana brings an international perspective to her work, advocating for fresh approaches within the fashion industry and establishing herself as a leading figure in innovation and creativity.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - Methods of Fashion Upcycling

Cheryl co-founded MADE custom apparel in 2020 to realize her dream of a more inclusive and sustainable outdoor industry.
She has brought in and successfully leveraged her skills as a technical outdoor wizard and an expert in manufacturing and supply chain to launch a company disrupting the outdoor industry with custom-made outdoor clothing.
Cheryl is an entrepreneur with a fresh and innovative vision, carving her path in a sector that has traditionally taken a prescribed route: from a teenage stint at an outdoor shop in her hometown on the Sunshine Coast of B.C. Canada to years of developing products for outdoor brands such as Arc'teryx in Vancouver, her vision has always been focused on creating an experience for every outdoor lover, even the ones that have been left out of bigger brands' visions and missions.
This has allowed her to create a business with an out-of-the-box approach to outdoor gear, pushing for the manufacturing of complex products which are able to include an expansive range of body types and gender identities which have been not included for too long by outdoor companies.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - The Case for Made to Measure

Rick Meade is an active participant, student and advocate of the Outdoor Specialty Industry. In three decades of exposure (started young), Rick gained perspectives from Nike, Nikwax and REI - and is currently engaged as REI's Co-op Brands Senior Product Manager for Camp and Backpack.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - The Modern Outdoor Industry, Where do we go from here?

Bill Amos founded the outdoor apparel brand NW Alpine in 2010 with the intention of making purpose built apparel for climbing mountains and producing it locally. With no background in apparel design, manufacturing or business, this led him on a fourteen year journey that included opening an apparel factory in 2014. Kichatna Apparel Manufacturing grew to be one of the largest activewear apparel factories on the US West Coast. After running into post-pandemic financial difficulties in 2022, KAM closed its doors at the end of that year. Though closing down the factory was incredibly difficult, Bill is stoked to be able to again focus solely on growing the NW Alpine brand to its full potential.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - Really damn hard but definitely not impossible: 10 lessons from 8 years of owning an American garment factory

Alice is a highly experienced Founder and Director of RAON Agency, a leading media production and digital marketing company in Vancouver. For 8 years, she has been dedicated to the creative industry, successfully leading her team of professionals and interns in identifying brand issues and providing creative solutions to increase online presence, drive sales, and deliver top-quality work for clients. She is also a respected higher education instructor for Fashion Marketing and Fashion Design programs at WSD at KPU, as well as at VCAD for multiple programs, including Fashion Design, Fashion Marketing, Digital Marketing, and Design Fundamentals. With a strong background in creative direction, fashion, design, marketing, and photography, Alice also hosts her own podcast channel, "Alice in Industryland," featuring interviews with fellow industry professionals. Her exemplary work has earned her a nomination for the Fashion Originator Award as a photographer at Vancouver Fashion Week.

PROPOSED TOPIC:

• - The Power of Visual Storytelling