McArthurGlen is proud to announce its sponsorship of the first Condé Nast International Luxury Conference.

The Conference takes place in Florence on 22-23 April 2015, and will be attended by around 500 of the most influential leaders in the global world of luxury.

Suzy Menkes, International Vogue Editor and one of the world’s most influential fashion journalists, has curated this first Condé Nast Luxury Conference.

For two days, globally-renowned business and creative speakers will focus on the “future of luxury – a new world, in which technology competes with ‘hard luxury’ (watches and jewellery) and leather goods”.

The Condé Nast Conference is being held in partnership with Swarovski, one of the many renowned ‘hard luxury’ brands to be found at McArthurGlen’s 20 Designer Outlets across Europe – with the 21^st, in Vancouver, due to open later this spring.

Shaeren McKenzie, Group Marketing Director, McArthurGlen, says: “Our strong selection of ‘hard luxury’ brands is especially popular with international shopping tourists from China, Korea, as well as the Southeast Asian countries, which form an increasingly important part of our business.”

A highlight of the Conference is Suzy Menkes in conversation with Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Design, and Marc Newson, one of the world’s foremost designers and who joined Apple last autumn. They will talk about how a new world is emerging in which technology competes with watches, jewellery and leather goods.

Shaeren adds: “Linking the world of fashion with the world of technology opens the door to what must be one of the most explosively exciting and fascinating times in the history of the fashion industry.”

At the Conference, views will also be shared on how the concept of luxury is evolving: with younger consumers and the emerging markets redefining what ‘luxury’ means.

Speakers at one of the most high-profile events in the global luxury calendar include international designers Karl Lagerfeld and Roberto Cavalli, and top executives from Salvatore Ferragamo, Moschino and Ralph Lauren, all representing brands with stores at McArthurGlen’s Designer Outlets.

The Conference is being held in the Salone dei Cinquecento, in the town hall of Florence, just half an hour away from McArthurGlen’s Barberino Designer Outlet, one of five McArthurGlen Designer Outlets in Italy and which has 145 of the world’s leading luxury and designer brands.