Light on the catwalk: Innovation management at São Paulo Fashion Week
Events; Fashion Events; São Paulo Fashion Week; Innovation; Crisis Management.
Fashion events are creative and innovative events capable of moving the local economy, tourism and the textile and clothing industry, in addition to improving the image of the host cities, enhancing the local culture and expanding the competitive advantage of destinations known as "fashion cities", which seek innovation and a better market positioning. In this scenario, São Paulo Fashion Week (SPFW) acquires notoriety as the biggest fashion event in South America, boosting the Brazilian fashion production chain, internationalizing national productions and the country's image. The innovation in these events presupposes the adoption of strategies that reverberate in new features, new outfits and elements conducive to raising the satisfaction of the participants. Thus, the present study aims to analyze the applicability of innovation management at SPFW, specifying: to investigate the development of innovation management occurs at SPFW from 2016 to 2022; to identify how innovation was implemented at the event during crisis scenarios and what its main results were; and to understand if SPFW motivates alternative modes of tourism, given the new dynamics of society and the characteristics of the event. This is a case study anchored in phenomenology, with descriptive and exploratory characteristics and a qualitative approach. The data is collected through bibliographic and documentary research, as well as interviews with the SPFW organizing committee and involved with the fashion week, and participant observation. The data analysis occurs through the content analysis technique with the help of the software Iramuteq (version 0.7 alpha 2) and the "Innovation Octagon" model. It is believed that the implementation of innovation management in fashion events reverberates in competitive advantage, renewal and the adoption of strategies capable of optimizing user satisfaction and the movement of tourist flows. Among the partial results, it is possible to identify that at each edition, SPFW manages to polish itself and add new elements to its program, moreover, the event corroborates with the local tourism and contemplates an audience with characteristics consistent with the current social dynamic of ephemerality and immediacy, glimpsing in glamour and luxury a promising trend to attract participants.