NIFT, Bhubaneswar organises International Case Symposium

Bhubaneswar, Nov 20: International Case Symposium in Fashion Retail & Management hosted by NIFT, Bhubaneswar made a colourful start at Toshali Sands Resort, Puri on Thursday.

Mr. Sudhir Tripathi, Director General of NIFT inaugurated the symposium in a glittering ceremony with lighting of lamp in presence of top executives from fashion & life style industry, academicians, scholars, researchers & fashion management students.

Mr. Sudhir Tripathi emphasized the importance of case study as a method of teaching from his own experience in Harvard Business School and appreciated the efforts of NIFT Bhubaneswar faculty in bridging the gap between academia & industry through the symposium.

Mr. Bikram Patnaik, Director (Merchandising), Nike, India explained how digital revolution is changing the way business is being conducted and online shopping is empowering the consumers like never before. Prof. Anthony Kent from Nottingham Trent University, UK & the keynote speaker of the symposium spoke about the integration of retail & online store with enriched customer experience through intense use of technology such as 3-D virtual imaging.

He presented a case study on retail giant Harrods and the future of fashion merchandising. Dr. K.C.S. Ray, Director, NIFT described the Case study as an Indian concept adopted in the ancient Indian education system through story telling. He explained as to how the symposium is going to make a difference in fashion education of the country in general & NIFT in particular.

In afternoon plenary session Mrs Vandana Bhandari, Dean, NIFT presided a session on handloom & handicrafts retailing with very interesting inputs from Mr. Atul Arora, Sr. category manager from Snapdeal, Prof. Ganesh Prabhu from IIM, Bangalore & Ms. Preeti Ramanathan, Co-Founder Agventues-social enterprise. Four technical sessions were conducted through out the day where more than 30 Case studies were presented. The symposium will continue tomorrow i.e. 20th Nov. and end with the valedictory session at about 5pm.