The Forum of Creative Youth and the Competition of Young Designers “Generation NEXT” is a place for professional growth and creative drive.

• Joint exhibition of the best projects of textile, costume and graphic designers – finalists of the Competition “Generation NEXT”.
• Showroom of the Competition winners at the professional exhibition.
• Business platform for master classes, round tables and presentations.

The goal is to create a platform for realizing the potential of creative youth within the framework of the professional International Exhibition “Fashion Industry”, promoting aspiring designers and specialists at the stage of creating their own brands and at the beginning of building a professional career.

Integration is the process of establishing optimal and strong connections between relatively independent elements of the system and uniting parts into a whole, rapprochement aimed at cooperation.

Problem. The process of integrating specialists into the fashion industry is ongoing. But not all the creative potential of young people is in demand, and the innovative spirit that they carry within themselves can be absorbed by the routine of the fashion business.

Solution. The gap between expectations and reality can be overcome by establishing a constant dialogue between the leaders of creative youth and existing enterprises. The exchange of opinions, questions and "ideal interaction maps" will take place in real time during the Forum.

Result. The formation of conditions for dialogue within the Forum and the creation of "ideal interaction maps" will help find points of interaction for joint work. The exhibition of creative projects in the final competition, the job fair, and events within the business program of the Forum will become a meeting place for employers with the most motivated students and graduates of creative training programs.

Young specialists and students of Russian and foreign universities, secondary specialized educational institutions and schools of professional training (retraining) aged 16 to 35 or older, provided that they graduated from a specialized educational institution no more than three years ago, can participate in the Forum and Competition.
Participation in the Forum and Competition is free of charge. Participants pay for travel and accommodation themselves.

FAREXPO Exhibition Association is one of the largest organizers of exhibitions and congresses in the North-West of the Russian Federation, a full member of the Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs since 1998. Member of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) and the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) since 2004.

International Exhibition "Fashion Industry"

The International Competition of Young Designers "Generation NEXT" was opened by FAREXPO in 2009. In the format of a joint exhibition of projects by costume, textile and graphic designers, it was held twice a year from 2013 to 2018. The number of competition finalists during this time increased from 15 to 150. Among them are students and graduates of more than 15 largest Russian universities and secondary vocational schools, young designers from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Lithuania and Latvia, Italy. The finalists of the competition invariably took part in the business program of the International Exhibition "Fashion Industry". The winners of the competition successfully started their careers in the industry, many of them work in leading companies or develop their own brands.
The partners of the competition were the National Academy of the Fashion Industry, Modanews, RusTM, RIA Moda, Fashion Magazin, PANTON, Solstudio, the companies "Makhaon", "Sesame".
Over the years of its work, "Generation NEXT" has established itself as an independent and authoritative project, the competition was included in the number of NAIM patronized projects. In 2015, the National Award in the field of fashion industry "Golden Spindle" in the nomination "Debut" was received by the winner of "Generation NEXT".

The competition was resumed in 2024. 407 applications were submitted for participation from students and graduates of 20 educational institutions of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The final was held on October 17-20, 2024 at the site of the International Exhibition Fashion Industry in Expoforum (St. Petersburg). The competition stand presented 86 projects of textile, costume and graphic designers. 70 finalists got the opportunity to participate in the business program: listen to lectures, seminars and master classes of experts, learn the opinion of consumers about their works as part of the voting of the Public Jury.