STAND UP! PROJECT | WEBINAR

Circular trends & business opportunities
in the textile & clothing sector– Mediterranean

Thursday, March 4, 2021 · 5:00 pm till 6:00 pm (Beirut time) · Webinar

About This Informative Webinar

The STAND Up! project (Sustainable Textile Action for Networking and Development of circular economy business ventures in the Mediterranean) is organising a web-conference aiming at publicly presenting the activities that the project partners will develop within the Growing Innovation Program. The main goal is supporting the creation and growth of circular ventures in the clothing and textile sector through direct support services to entrepreneurs in the ideation, early and growth stage.  

The specific objective is to present and inform about the business support services that will be provided by the project partners and the “Call for green entrepreneurs” opened on February 15, 2021 designed to deliver a 2-month capacity-building program tailored to support them in developing their green business models.  

The web conference will also introduce the circular trends and circular business opportunities and models in the textiles and fashion sector in the Mediterranean, showcasing successful circular business ventures of the textile and fashion sectors.  

The STAND Up! project is funded by the European Union under the ENI CBC MED Programme, currently focused on a 10-months program of business support activities and innovation opportunities designed for entrepreneurship and eco-innovative business projects in the textile, clothing and fashion industry.

More information is available also on the STAND Up! website

Welcoming

17:00 – 17:10

  • Ms. Anna Ibañez de Arolas, Project Manager, SCP/RAC
  • Ms. Valeria Cibrario, Senior Expert – Business and SME development, Joint Technical Secretariat – Programme ENI CBC MED

Talk

17:10 – 17:30

Circular trends & business opportunities in the textile & clothing sector – Mediterranean

  • Mr. David Allo, Sustainability Manager, TEXFOR Textile Industry Confederation
  • ID Eight – Sneakers with a refined and a sustainable design
  • Dabchy – The App to buy and sell your clothes from home

Presentation

17:30 – 17:45

Get to know the Accelerator services and the partners 

  • Ms. Krystel Khalil, Projects Lab Director, Berytech and the partners’ representatives.

Q&A

17:45 – 18:00 

Open time for attendees to ask questions

Meet The Speakers

Krystel Khalil

Programs Director, Berytech

Krystel Khalil is currently the Programs Director at Berytech. She manages the projects lab unit, responsible for the design, development, fundraising, partnership development and management of innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development programs, on the local and international scale.

With more than 13 years’ experience in the field of communication, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and innovation, Krystel has developed an extensive experience in communication and outreach, business development, program development and implementation, from which EU-funded regional projects, tackling various innovation areas including technology, social entrepreneurship, technology transfer, cleantech, green and sustainable energy and more.

She runs communication and roadshow activities to promote entrepreneurship on the local and international level, while assisting entrepreneurs through coaching and advisory in communication strategy, social entrepreneurship and business model. In parallel, she gives university lectures and workshops in marketing research and entrepreneurship.

Krystel is a certified mentor from Mowgli Foundation and Confideo Venture Mentoring – affiliated to MIT. She holds a master’s degree in marketing and a bachelor’s in business from Saint-Joseph University, in addition to a social entrepreneurship diploma from INSEAD. She is a member of the US State Department alumni, part of the US Active Citizen Summit Program.

Krystel has attended entrepreneurship conferences, events and capacity building activities in over 15 countries and currently manages 5 international innovation and entrepreneurship programs at Berytech.

Her expertise: entrepreneurship, social innovation, environmental innovation, technology transfer, communication, coaching and advisory for startups, business development, program and partnership development.

Anna Ibañez de Arolas

Project Manager, SCP/RAC

Anna Ibañez, B. in Law (UB-Barcelona), PGCert in Cultural Management and Policies (UOC-Barcelona), MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (UOC-Barcelona), is the Project Manager at UNEP/MAP-SCP/RAC. She coordinates the ENI CBC MED funded STAND Up! project. Ms. Ibañez has more than 8 years of experience in the field of sustainability and specializes in supporting sustainable business development and innovation and fostering sustainable consumption the Mediterranean with a special focus on the intersection between the role of companies as drivers of circular consumption models and the change in consumer behaviour as a lever for change towards a circular economy.

Valeria Cibrario

Senior Expert - Business and SME development, Joint Technical Secretariat - Programme ENI CBC MED

Valeria has an honours master’s degree in Social Anthropology, from Edinburgh University (UK); a Master’s in International Co-operation (Development) from the Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) in Milan (IT), a Diploma in Sustainable Tourism and Local development obtained at the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation, and has done an Executive course in Project Management at CUOA Business School in Vicenza (IT).
She was previously Project officer in international development (2001-2011) for various international NGOs in Italy, Mexico and Colombia, Project manager for the largest SME Association in Italy (2013 – 2020): deputy head of the international department from 2013 to 2016 (took part in and organised multiple of trade fairs, b2b meetings and hosted plenty of international delegations); head of the projects’ department since 2016. Her projects focused on SME development, business model innovation, internationalisation, smart city, industry 4.0, VET and all the services that can be developed and offered to micro and small companies. She designed, set up and coordinated a customised service with a dedicated team of 15 full-time staff, for MSMEs seeking public funding for internationalisation, R&I, business model innovation, transfer of business, etc. She represented the Association at various high level international meetings, fora and seminars, including public speaking and moderating engagements.

David Allo

Sustainability Manager, TEXFOR Textile Industry Confederation

David Allo is the Head of Sustainability at TEXFOR – The Confederation of the Textile Industry, the leading textile business association in Spain, representing 3,894 companies, the vast majority SMEs, which employ 42,873 people and reach a turnover of € 4,755M.

They defend the collective interest of Spanish textile companies that manufacture or market yarns, fabrics, textile manufactures and accessories, finishes and/or prints, for the clothing, home and technical and industrial markets.

Dabchy

Dabchy is an online platform, a localized fashion marketplace (a website and a mobile app) that allows women to revamp their wardrobes by buying and selling their used clothing online. 

Their “Special Sauce” lies in the fact that they are operating as a trusted third party for each transaction. Sellers are guaranteed to receive their money and buyers are protected from unpleasant surprises when receiving their items. 

They have achieved their goals of bringing, in 5 years of activity, more than 500,000 registered users on the platform and a catalog of more than 1M items for sale. Also, they are expanding to Egypt in 2021.

ID.EIGHT

ID.EIGHT was born from the meeting between Dong Seon Lee and Giuliana Borzillo, both of whom come from the world of footwear, in which they worked and where they met: Dong is a designer and Giuliana a product manager. Together they have created a collection of sneakers with a refined and at the same time sustainable and ethical design. The shoes are made in Italy with low environmental impact materials from food industry waste such as apple and grape skins, pineapple leaves, recycled cotton and polyester. ID.EIGHT, where ID stands for Identity and Eight (therefore the number 8) embodies infinity, the ability to regenerate and therefore eco-sustainability, is the project of eco-sustainable sneakers, made with waste from the food and materials industry recycling. The goal is to launch a low environmental impact shoe, made in Italy, made with innovative and eco-sustainable materials, unisex, with a refined design that recalls the 90s.

Register now to get your access ticket.

About the STAND Up! Incubator

The ENI CBC Med funded STAND Up! project is launching a 10-months program of business support activities and innovation opportunities designed for entrepreneurship and eco-innovative business projects in the textile, clothing and fashion industry sectors contributing positively to an environmentally and socially responsible circular model. 

The program, organized in 4 different stages, will contribute to the growth of this ecosystem focusing on green business model development, early-stage incubation, access to markets, regional sectorial network and access to finance in 5 Mediterranean countries (Egypt, Italy, Lebanon, Spain and Tunisia).  

The first stage of this path is the launch of the call  for entrepreneurship and eco-innovative business projects with the aim to select young innovators and business men and women in the fashion, clothing and textile industry. They are invited to apply to access innovative solution trainings in order to turn their concepts and solutions into scalable circular businesses. 

The project’s partner countries engaged aim at involving about 200 startups and recently established companies from the Mediterranean area which will be directly committed in activities and benefit from the support of STAND Up! growing innovation assets.  

Need more info?

If you have any questions about the Webinar or the STAND Up! Project, please email tala.saleh@berytech.org, and we will get back to you.