Disrupt Europe, our major conference, comes to Berlin in October. Some of the best known names from the Valley and Europe are coming and the latest is José Neves, Founder of Farfetch.
Disrupt Europe will take place from October 26-29 (Hackathon on 26-27; Main Event on 28-29) and there is lots more info here.
Tickets can be purchased here and ‘early bird’ pricing ends on Monday, so get going.
José Neves was born in Porto (Portugal) in 1974. He started coding when he was 8, as so often happens this was because the ZX Spectrum his parents gave him for Christmas didn’t come with any games. Over the years, programming became a passion, and Neves became proficient in C, C++ and launched his first technology company in 1994, while still studying Economics at FEP (Porto).
He decided to also try his luck in shoe design, having launched Swear in London in 1996. In 2001, he launched the B Store brand and in 2006 this project received a British Fashion Award.
In 2007, Neves came up with a new idea which merged fashion with technology. Struck by how many amazing independent retailers have a global appeal and how, at the same time, it is so difficult for them to tap the online channel, he thought that if he could unite under one roof the most inspirational boutiques of the world, this would immediately make available an unrivalled range to global consumers, whilst giving these boutiques a win-win business opportunity.
Enter farfetch, a project which hopes to give back to independent fashion boutiques the center stage in fashion they traditionally enjoyed.
Farfetch is a third model in e-tail. It is not a pure e-tailer (like net-a-porter), or a marketplace (like eBay), but rather a multi-channel enabler for a network of the best high-end independent retailers, worldwide.
Meanwhile, let us remind you that we’ll also have a Startup Alley during Disrupt, where companies can show off their wares to potential investors and partners. You can grab a table here.
To get an idea of it check out these videos from one of the days at our most recent Disrupt event, in New York, or this video with clips from other Alleys past.
If you would like information on sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here sponsors@beta.techcrunch.com or get more info here.