22 March 2023: Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), the non-profit organisation that is accelerating the transition to a net positive fashion industry, has launched the search for seven leading Next Gen voices in the fashion industry to participate in the Next Gen Assembly, in collaboration with its Academic Partner, London College of Fashion’s (LCF) Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) via the Fashion Values Programme.

Through the newly launched Next Gen Assembly programme, GFA Academy and CSF will support the seven selected candidates alongside the student winner of the Fashion Values Challenge, in developing advocacy and communications skills to foster their development as sustainability changemakers. Sustainable Fashion Blogger, Photojournalist and Labour Rights Activist, Aditi Mayer, will act as an Ambassador for the programme. The selected group will participate in at least two collaborative workshops with GFA and CSF and complete the Fashion Values: Cultures course. The first of which will focus on community building and understanding candidates’ aspirations in order to co-create goals and methodologies for achieving change with the programme. The second workshop will centre around empowering and coaching the group on how to be successful advocates for the fashion community and thoroughly prepare them for their roles at Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen in June 2023.

Participants will then play an integral role as the radical voices of Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition 2023, with a fundamental focus on purposeful storytelling. Each individual will be assigned an on-site industry mentor and be meaningfully involved in a number of activities and networking opportunities throughout the event. The chosen candidates can expect to interact with content from esteemed global leaders, changemakers and thinkers under the Summit’s theme, ‘Ambition to Action’.

The programme is seeking applications from talented students, recent graduates and/or young professionals from diverse locations and fields of interest including design, media and communications, business and technology. The trip and Summit experience will be fully funded for participants. Applications are open now until 12 April 2023, and those interested are required to provide a written statement and short video with their application.

Following the Summit, the stories of the Next Gen Assembly participants will be collated and communicated throughout 2023. This inaugural edition will help to inform the growth of the programme in 2024 and beyond. The programme is just one element of the GFA Academy – the division of GFA which seeks to educate stakeholders by providing practical sustainability knowledge, tools, and solutions.

The Next Gen Assembly programme builds on the success of Global Fashion Agenda’s Youth Summit, an educational programme that took place in conjunction with Global Fashion Summit until 2020 and gathered young industry talents from around the world to learn from each other.

If you would like to attend Global Fashion Summit: Copenhagen Edition 2023, 27-28 June on behalf of a publication or media outlet, we invite you to apply for press accreditation here.