Due to the lockdown in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, on-campus classes are not held at Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI) campuses. However, to finish the course, amid the COVID-19 crisis, faculty members of FDDI are conducting online sessions.
Not only FDDI staff, but the industry too has joined hands to motivate the students. As education instruction and study patterns have drastically changed during the COVID-19 crisis, stalwarts of the leather, fashion, footwear industry and of the retail sector are interacting with students through webinars and online sessions.
Webinars were conducted at FDDI campuses that aim to outline the challenges affecting individuals, businesses, and governments and how technology is playing a crucial role in supplying solutions.
The School of Retail Management of FDDI, Hyderabad campus conducted a webinar on 07th May 2020 on the topic ‘Impact of Medical Textiles & its Applications’.
This session was conducted by Mr. Y.V. Asish. He is a Textile Engineer from College of Engineering and Technology (CET) and has worked with textile giant like Vardhaman Group in their Textile Chemical Processing division.
Mr. Asish provided detailed insight on the use of medical textiles. The session which commenced with briefing about the current scenario of textile industry also covered PPE-science & mechanism involved as well action plan for textile, fashion and retail sector. He gave an elaboration on various features of N-95 masks, PPE kits, and various implications of medical textiles in Covid-19 era. The chemical composition of various elements in a PPE kit, kinds of seams that are used and their functionality were some of the many aspects that were discussed.
The session was attended by more than 80 students and staff member of Hyderabad, Chennai & Chhindwara campus.
During the webinar organized by School of Retail Management, on 09th May 2020 at FDDI, Jodhpur campus on the topic ‘Challenges and Opportunities in Entrepreneurship and Family Business Start ups’, Prof Samish Dalal shared his views and suggested the path to follow in becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Prof. Samish Dalal, MBA from University of Queensland, Australia specializes in the field of Negotiation, Entrepreneurship and Innovation and is associated with family business since many years. He is the Associate Professor at S P Jain Institute of Global Management, Mumbai and has played an important role in creating knowledge for family business community for more than 1000 Indian Family Business and have performed many Technology, Entertainment, Design (TEDx) events to communicate the same ideas to budding youth.
More than 137 candidates participated in this session amongst which 100 candidates were Academicians (Faculty, Research Scholars etc.) from different eminent institutes across various States of India and remaining were students of different streams.
Another webinar on ‘Career Prospects in Retail Sector’ was conducted by FDDI, Banur campus on 10th May 2020. It was attended by over 100 participants across India with eminent educationists and industry professionals joining this webinar.
Dr. Avinash Bajpai (Centre-Incharge) and Mr. Ritesh Gupta (HoD-Retail) hosted this session through briefing the participants on the role of FDDI in grooming the retail and fashion merchandise professionals to cater to the perennial needs of the retail sector.
Mr. Vikram Singh (Sales & Marketing –Croma Retail), Mr. Navin (FDDI alumni & Logistics professional) and Mr. Rishi (Reliance Retail) raised their concerns on the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian retail sector and the strategies to be adopted to overcome such scenarios. Dr. Avinash explicitly handled the concerns and resolved the queries.
Another webinar on the topic ‘COVID-19 and its Impact on Digitalization in Retail’ was conducted by FDDI, Chhindwara campus on 17th May 2020.
During this webinar, Mrs. Shashwati Bhowmick, H.O.D. & Sr. Faculty, Retail Management, Chhindwara campus elaborated on the need for digitalization in Retail in the context of two major aspects viz. Operations and Payments, in the present and post COVID-19 era. There were around 80 participants who registered and attended this webinar.
The webinars were conducted through online platforms for which participants were provided a link to register themselves.
