For Immediate Release
March 24, 2008
Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805 or phunter@colum.edu
Trendmaster Robyn Waters to Speak to Chicago’s Fashion Design Students
This is not a public event. Media welcome to attend.
Robyn is available for interviews.
The Arts, Entertainment and Media Management (AEMM) department at Columbia College Chicago will host a lecture and book signing with trendmaster Robyn Waters, the former vice president of trend, design and products for Target Corporation, on Tuesday, April 15 at Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash Ave., 8th floor from 10 to11 a.m. Afterwards Waters will sign copies of her books, “The Hummer and The Mini: Navigating the contradictions of the New Trend Landscape (2006)” and “The Trendmaster’s Guide: Get a Jump on What Your Customer Wants Next (2005)” from 11 to 11:30 a.m.
Waters’ lecture will focus on marketing and entrepreneurship, incorporating excerpts from “The Hummer and the Mini.” In “The Hummer and the Mini,” Waters explores the new trend landscape and urges companies to stop looking for the one right answer in their industry and, instead, embrace the paradoxes.
In addition to Columbia student and faculty, Dana Connell, part-time fashion retail management faculty member and the event coordinator invited fashion design students and faculty from other area college’s and universities: College of DuPage, Dominican University, Harpers College, International Academy of Design and Technology, The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Students much present a valid student I.D.
“’The Hummer and the Mini’” is required reading for our Clothing & Society class,” said Dianne Erpenbach, coordinator of Columbia’s fashion retail management program. “Robyn has an uncanny ability to motivate her audiences into action as a speaker and author. Her gift to identify, track and translate trends into sales and profits is the type of insight we would like our students to incorporate into their thought process and creativity.”
Waters began her career in the late 1970s when a trend was defined as something that everyone wanted at the same time. She has served as juror for numerous national design competitions, including the BusinessWeek IDEA Design Awards, the National Design Awards for the Cooper-Hewitt Museum and the international Housewares Association.
She is the author of “The Trendmaster’s Guide: Get a Jump on What Your Customer Wants Next” and “The Hummer and the Mini: Navigating the Contradictions of the New Trend Landscape.” Waters speaking engagements for clients such as P&G, Nestle’ USA, Hewlett-Packard, Starbucks, General Mills, GlaxoSmithKline, United Nations UNIFEM and Microsoft have helped these corporations revolutionize sales. She encourages her clients to tap into the hearts and minds of their customers by focusing less on ‘what’s next’ and more on ‘what’s important.’ It is advice she followed as she transitioned from her successful retail career with Target Corporation, as vice president of trend, design and product development, to a consultant, author and speaker.
Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution committed to open access, opportunity and excellence in higher education, provides innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to more than 12,000 students in more than 120 undergraduate and graduate programs, including film & video, art & design, arts management, television, radio, music, interactive multimedia – all within a liberal arts context. Founded in 1890 as a communications school, Columbia College Chicago was revisioned in 1963 as a liberal arts college with a “hands-on minds-on” approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. Under the modern leadership of President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D., Columbia is aggressively pursuing this mission. Columbia is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The college is accredited as a teacher training institution by the Illinois State Board of Education. For further information visit www.colum.edu. 5.07