Another trade show organizer is taking one of its popular events digital in the wake of a coronavirus pandemic shifting in-person gatherings online.
Liberty Fashion & Lifestyle Fairs (LF&LF) has partnered with Joor’s digital wholesale platform to launch its resort-oriented Cabana women’s wear show in an online format on July 20, the date its Miami event was scheduled to take place. Joor also worked to digitize the upcoming Premium Berlin trade show and London Fashion Week events, as the fashion industry scrambles to reimagine a trade built on face-to-face meetings.
“We knew we had to move quickly in order to provide our community with meaningful channels for business, both now and into the future,” Cabana co-founder Janet Wong said. “Bringing the show onto Joor ensures that we can provide a solution allowing for seamless end-to-end transactions for all parties involved, while keeping the spirit of discovery alive and well.”
Cabana will leverage the Joor Passport platform to offer a “one-stop-shop,” featuring rich imagery in virtual showrooms where users can place and manage their orders, schedule virtual appointments, highlight brand stories and collect data to optimize performance and growth.
“As a platform that facilitates commerce between brands and retail, we feel the responsibility to create solutions to help support the brands and community we serve during times when business is uncertain,” Liberty Fairs co-founder Sharifa Murdock said. “LF&LF will continue to dedicate its efforts to helping our brands in any way we can while ideating solutions to better our industry for the future.”
Joor CEO Kristin Savilia noted how a “digital ecosystem” can unite fashion during the unprecedented times. “Our industry can thrive like any other connected community with a common goal,” she said, “if we work together to break down silos instead of creating them.”
Despite the move to digital, LF&LF said it will continue to schedule in-person shows for both Capsule and Liberty Fairs following standard safety protocols for large-scale events.
The next editions are currently scheduled for September, though Liberty Fairs will hold its own virtual marketplace in August. Regardless of when and how physical events eventually take place, LF&LF said future shows will embrace online and offline components.
LF&LF follows in the footsteps of Première Vision, Pitti Immagine and Informa Markets Fashion, all of which have announced online events to replace or complement traditional physical shows amid COVID-19.