February 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contact:

Anne Meerboth-Maltz
Tel. (312)781-5185
Fax (312) 781-5188
email: ameerboth@mdna.com

Messe Düsseldorf North America
150 North Michigan Avenue
Suite 2920
Chicago, IL 60601

"TRENDS IN PROGRESS LOUNGE" PREMIERS AT GDS 2010

A new addition to the supporting program of GDS, International Event for Shoes & Accessories, will be the “Trends in Progress Lounge” in Hall 7.0. The lounge will be a central lecture area offering a variety of events focused on fashion trends, product news and industry know-how. All presentation will either be held in German and English or simultaneous translations will be offered. GDS will take place from March 12 -14, 2010 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The Amsterdam agency Y Trends specializing in young fashion footwear and sneakers trends will hold the first Footwear Designer Networking Drinks event. In addition to discussions with designers, visitors will be able to meet young design talents just graduating from the new “Industrial Footwear Design” course in the Netherlands. Selected students will hold brief talks and then discuss their shoe design ideas with participants at a Creativity Talk (March 12, 6:00 pm).

The "trend tweets" from Nicoline van Enter at Y Trends will provide a complete overview of trendsetting design principles for the 2010/2011 Autumn/Winter and 2011 Spring/Summer seasons (March 12, 10:00 am; March 13, 11:00 am).

“Join the Early Birds” will be a trend seminar by Nicoline van Enter for the 2011/2012 Autumn/Winter and 2012 Spring/Summer seasons. The event will be particularly geared towards designers and developers looking for trend information for the more distant future. There is a fee to attend this seminar (March 12, 4:30 pm).

In addition to her trend lectures, Nicoline van Enter will be talking in other seminars on current industry topics and innovative approaches in shoe design and marketing. The “Developments in Eco Footwear” lecture will deal with the latest ecological materials and sustainability principles (March 12, 3:00 pm). How the shoe trade can tap into the booming erotic market will be demonstrated in the seminar “Growing Opportunities for Erotic Footwear” (March 13, 3:00 pm).

In his lecture entitled “Value for Money”, Professor Roberto Gusso from Italy’s Ars Sutoria School will explain the most important criteria when comparing price and quality. Buyers and retailers will be familiarized with the materials relevant to and used in today’s shoe manufacturing processes thereby enabling them to assess the value of the end product. Online registration at www.gds-online.de is recommended - the first 50 trade visitors will receive a free six-month subscription to the Ars Sutoria online magazine and 10 visitors will also win an annual subscription to the Ars Sutoria magazine (March 12 and 13 at 2:00 pm).

The wellness sector is considered the largest growth market of the 21st century and GDS also shows just how fashionable wellness can be by highlighting exhibitors within this segment with a green wellness symbol in the show directory. In addition, the “Roundtable: Shape your Business” will present the new opportunities for retailers on the topic of wellness and sustainability (March 13, 1:00 pm).

How online retail and environmental protection go hand in hand will be demonstrated in the cooperation between RICOSTA and Gaxsys at the roundtable “From E-Commerce to Eco-Commerce”. The e-commerce GAX system stands for “global article exchange” and is a sort of merchandise exchange that passes on orders from the online shops of cooperating brand manufacturers to local specialist retailers. These retailers can then secure the order and send out the products. Due to the e-commerce GAX system, local retail is incorporated in a fully automated fashion into the online business of participating brand manufacturers for the first time (March 13, 4:00 pm).

schuhkurier editors Karolina Landowski and Helge Neumann will provide tips on creative decorative ideas for the point of sale in their Deco Design Lecture “Beautiful Designs for Shop Windows”. They will also present the most imaginative store window decorations from the most important fashion cities. (March 14, 2:00 pm).

For further information on visiting or exhibiting at GDS 2010, contact Messe Düsseldorf North America, 150 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2920, Chicago, IL 60601. Telephone: (312) 781-5180; Fax: (312) 781-5188; E-mail: info@mdna.com; Visit our web site http://www.mdna.com; Subscribe to our blog http://blog.mdna.com; Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/mdnachicago

For hotel and travel information, contact TTI Travel, Inc. at (866) 674-3476; Fax: (212) 674-3477; E-mail: travltrade@aol.com; www.traveltradeint.com

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