Amelia Arroquia is the founder and CEO of Minicool. An Industrial Design Engineer specializing in market analysis and the application of artificial intelligence to creative processes, she combines strategic vision with a keen design sensibility. Since 2012, she has worked with brands in over 30 countries, guiding their creative teams as they transform trends and market insights into collection concepts and product designs tailored to specific contexts. She is currently leading the evolution of Minicool into a digital platform that integrates expert trend research with AI-powered tools, helping companies design collections with greater agility, sound judgment, and a stronger connection to their market.

Cansu Pehlivanoğlu - Computer Engineer, Founder of NOBBY Agency

Cansu Pehlivanoğlu, a computer engineer and the founder of NOBBY Agency, works in the fields of digital marketing, brand strategy, and technology-focused business development. 

Developing strategies aimed at helping brands achieve a strong and sustainable position in the digital world, Pehlivanoğlu is also the co-founder of Bahçemag Digital Magazine and the Vice President of the Bahçeşehir Entrepreneurial Women's Association. 

Ali Yücel Yalçın - Technology Entrepreneur

He is a senior Mechanical Engineer and serial entrepreneur born in 1981 in Sarıkamış, Kars, who completed his education in Eskişehir and have over 20 years of industry experience. He began his career journey in the automotive sector and gained deep expertise in hydraulic-pneumatic systems and industrial automation. Since 2014, he has been managing his own companies, providing consultancy for domestic and national defense industry projects (KAAN, HÜRJET), and establishing critical test infrastructures. He is leading innovation in the industry by combining traditional engineering discipline with artificial intelligence and digital transformation solutions through the technology company he founded. 

Yunus Doğukan Böltül - E-Commerce Trainer

After graduating from the Mechatronics Department at Kadir Has University in 2018, he found his way into e-commerce, and he has since exported his products to 19 different countries. For years now, he has been actively working across marketplaces like Trendyol, Hepsiburada, N11, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Temu, and Ozon, building businesses through everything from B2B to D2C models. He also cares deeply about sharing what he has learned — through Udemy, he has trained over 5,500 students in e-commerce and e-export, because he wants people to see that this business is about more than just opening a store; with the right strategy and the right knowledge, you can build something real. 

Seçil Kayan - Monster Studyo Founder, Creative Strategist

Seçil Kayan is an entrepreneur and creative strategist working across advertising, fashion, children’s brands, casting, brand communications, and creative content production. As the founder of Monster Studyo, she leads projects spanning casting services, creative communications, PR, content development, and brand campaigns. Kayan is actively involved in child and adult casting, TV advertising campaigns, influencer communications, and visual content production.She previously held a management position at DeFacto, where she spent six years working in corporate communications and the creative studio. She brings together her experience in corporate brand communications and creative production with her entrepreneurial vision. 

Evrim Kayan - Co-Founder, Monster Stüdyo, Fashion Designer & Art Director

Co-Founder, Monster Stüdyo | Fashion Designer & Art Director Evrim Kayan is a fashion designer, art director, and award-winning illustrator whose multidisciplinary practice spans fashion, textiles, illustration, art, and visual communication. She began her artistic education at a Fine Arts High School and continued her studies at Hacettepe University.In 2011, she decided to establish Monster Stüdyo, bringing together her background in art and design with her entrepreneurial vision. Since then, she has provided design and creative strategy consultancy to numerous textile companies in Türkiye and internationally, developing particular expertise in collection development, brand identity, and the creation of distinctive design languages. Combining her artistic background with fashion and textile design, Kayan approaches design not merely as a process of product development, but as a form of storytelling, visual identity, and world-building that allows brands to establish their own unique creative universes. Her work brings together multiple disciplines, including fashion collections, textile prints, character design, illustration, and creative concept development.Within the children’s textile industry, she focuses on character-driven collections, story-based prints, and innovative product development, placing children’s imagination at the heart of the creative design process.More recently, she has been integrating artificial intelligence technologies into her creative practice, exploring new approaches to collection development, character creation, digital visualization, and visual storytelling.She views the intersection of human creativity and technology as an emerging space for innovation, one that is shaping the future of fashion and children’s textiles while redefining the boundaries between art, design, and technology

Faruk Toprak - Founder of Joykek, AI & Marketing Consultant, Podcast Producer

Faruk Toprak is the founder of Joykek, a digital marketing agency that connects Turkish brands with the right audience in the global arena using the right language and fully measurable strategies. Beginning his career with strong steps at Eczacıbaşı,Toprak expanded his vision to the United States, the world's most competitive market. For five years at AI Media Group and Cruise Norway, he managed million-dollar digital advertising operations targeting American consumers for giant brands such as NYPD, Panasonic USA, Hard Rock Cafe, and ConnectiCare, with a strict focus on return on investment (ROI).Returning to Turkey in 2020, he founded Joykek to integrate this global experience into the local ecosystem. Today, he builds Google, Meta, Bing, and LinkedIn advertising campaigns, alongside multilingual SEO, GEO, and AI-powered autonomous sales infrastructures for cross-border manufacturers and brands. His master's degree in Financial Markets from Marmara University enables him to approach every campaign not merely as a marketer, but with a highly financial and data-driven perspective, always asking: "How many sales did this investment generate?

Erdinç works as account manager at WGSN Turkey since 2012, managing strategic accounts from various industries such as fashion, interior, beauty, food & drink and e-commerce. Frequently organizing trend seminars and providing training & guidance to design, sales, R&D and academy departments of his clients. He is also a regular presenter at the events and conferences of the top brands of Turkey and Middle East. Erdinç is a graduate of Uludag University, has 20 years of sales and account management experience within different industries. 

He graduated from Marmara University, Department of Economics. Between 1997 and 2006, He lived in New York, USA, where he completed his MBA at the New York Institute of Technology. During this period, he held managerial positions in two different sectors in New York. 

In 2006, he took on a long-term managerial role at Hyosung Corp., a South Korea-based manufacturer of nylon, polyester, and lycra yarn operating in Türkiye. he currently continues his activities within Elsan Örme, trading synthetic yarns with a particular focus on lycra. 

Prof. Dr. Ender Bulgun, Izmir University of Economics, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design

Ender Bulgun received her bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees from the Department of Textile Engineering at Ege University. During her master’s studies, she also studied at the Department of Textile and Fashion Design in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Dokuz Eylül University. From 2005 to 2008, she taught fashion design courses in the Fashion Design program, established in collaboration with FIT, at Istanbul Technical University’s Faculty of Textile Technologies and Design. Between 2008 and 2010, she served as Academic Program Leader at IMA (Istanbul Moda Academy), leading the planning and development of its programs. She also contributed to the establishment of the Fashion Design and Technology undergraduate program delivered in collaboration with the London College of Fashion and coordinated the development of its curriculum. 

Alongside her academic work, she has participated in national and international projects focusing on design and technology and coordinated collaborative project processes involving stakeholders from different disciplines. From 2004 to 2010, she also served as Erasmus Coordinator at the Faculty of Engineering of Dokuz Eylül University. 

From 2012 to September 2026, she served as Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design at Izmir University of Economics. Her areas of work and research include fashion design and technology, emerging technologies, smart clothing design and applications, and interdisciplinary project management. 

Abdi Köse, Textile Engineer, CEO of Akdoku Tekstil ve Kimya San. Tic. Ltd. Şti.

Founder and General Manager of Akdoku Tekstil. He has over 40 years of experience in the textile industry; Akdoku Tekstil, which he founded in 1994, specializes in the production of technical textiles for the military and industry, particularly flame-resistant (FR), antistatic, arc flash protective, and military fabrics, and in addition to fabric manufacturing, it also operates in the fashion and military apparel sectors, serving customers domestically as well as in Europe and the Middle East. 

In terms of education, he earned his bachelor's degree in Textile Engineering from Ege University in 1985 and his master's degree in the same field in 1988. He began his career as a weaving and production supervisor at Çukurova Sanayi İşletmeleri between 1986 and 1989, then worked as a research assistant at Ege University's Department of Textile Engineering between 1989 and 1994, and has served as the Founder and General Manager of Akdoku Tekstil since 1994 to the present. 

His areas of expertise include protective technical textiles, fiber and yarn selection, weaving/knitting, product development, quality control, dyeing and finishing, foreign trade, and supplier management.

Lecturer Dr. Belgin Görgün, Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Textile Technologies and Design 

She graduated from Ege University's Department of Textile Engineering in 1986 and remained in the department as a Research Assistant, where she completed her Master's and Doctoral degrees. Between 1994 and 2006, she worked as a CAD/CAM systems manager at TETAŞ A.Ş. Afterward, she continued her academic career at ITU. She teaches various courses in the Fashion Design Program and the Textile Development and Marketing Programs, conducted in collaboration with the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as courses ranging from Digital Design in Textile Engineering to Ready-to-Wear Design and Production. She has participated in numerous national and international research projects and studies.

Assistant Professor İrem Arıkan Ekşi - PhD, İstanbul Bilgi University, Department of Textile and Fashion Design

After completing her undergraduate education in the Department of Economics at Ankara University's Faculty of Political Sciences, İrem Arıkan Ekşi earned her bachelor's degree in fine arts (beeldende kunst - autonoom) from the Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam. She completed her master's degree in visual arts at Sabancı University on a full scholarship and worked as a teaching assistant in the same department. In the Textile Design main art branch at Marmara University's Faculty of Fine Arts, she specialized in the historical development of weaving structures and received her proficiency in art degree with a thesis on the structural and aesthetic properties of lampas-weave fabrics. Between 2005 and 2012, she worked as a full-time lecturer in the Visual Communication Design Department at Bahçeşehir University. She served as an exhibition guide at the Sabancı Museum during 2005-2006 and 2012-2013. Since 2018, she has been working as a faculty member and department head in the textile and fashion design department. She participates in international and national group exhibitions and continues her artistic work with solo exhibitions focused on textile art. Her areas of research and production include the development of fashion and textile design competence through practice-based research and inquiry-based learning in textile art, as well as narrative pedagogy for emotionally durable design.

Renan Tan Tavukçuoğlu - Social Entrepreneur, Puduhepa and Sisters

Renan Tan Tavukçuoğlu is a social entrepreneur, author and marketing professional. A pioneer of word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) community building in Turkey, working with global brands such as P&G, Unilever, Coca-Cola, L’Oréal and Nestlé. Today he is the founder of Puduhepa and Sisters, a social enterprise that makes handmade cloth dolls, building a community-driven brand that puts the story behind each product and the work of women at its center. He is also the author of “Bizim Kızlara Tavsiyeler” (Advice for Our Girls), a book of 101 pieces of advice for girls. Tavukçuoğlu speaks about how brands can build genuine relationships with real people around a shared purpose. 

Tuba Bektaş - Family Counselor, Child Development Specialist

Tuba Bektaş is a Family Counselor and Child Development Specialist. She graduated from Istanbul University with degrees in Political Science and International Relations as well as Child Development, and completed her master's degree in Psychology at Istanbul Aydın University. She holds various training and practitioner certifications in family counseling, child and adolescent development, play therapy, and psychological counseling. In her professional work, Bektaş takes a holistic approach to children's emotional, cognitive, and social development, working in the fields of parental counseling and child-adolescent counseling. She conducts work on understanding children's developmental needs and ensuring these needs are taken into account across different areas, from daily life to product and brand experiences. 

Katie Kendrick (Pirouette Blog)

Katie Kendrick is a leading voice and influential figure in the global kids’ fashion and lifestyle industry. As the owner of Pirouette (blog*, magaZine*, directory* agency*, consultancy*) Katie has built one of the most respected and comprehensive multi-channel platforms within children’s fashion and lifestyle. For over a decade, Pirouette has spotlighted emerging businesses, identified new talent, connected brands with the international industry and supported some of the most exciting names in children’s fashion and lifestyle. Katie’s expertise spans: Editorial, Creative Direction, Event Production, Brand Positioning and Strategic Consultancy. Her knowledge of the international market, combined with an extensive global network and strong industry relationships, allows Pirouette to understand the market from the perspective of brands, buyers, manufacturers and end consumers alike.

Linda McLean (Smudgetikka)

Linda McLean has a long and varied career in the fashion business.

She graduated from St Martins School of Art with a degree in fashion design into fashion journalism at iconic teen magazine Honey. Then became Fashion Editor of the newly launched You Magazine at the Mail on Sunday throughout the 80’s. In the 90’s she and her co-founder launched the glossy parenting magazine Junior which became instantly successful.

Following its sale and later move to online only she then became Fashion  Editor at Family Traveller magazine as well as launching her blog and Instagram for kids fashion and lifestyle Smudgetikka.