时装秀场迎来电子座位管家

    不久前，为时装秀制作座位表还是一个非常粗糙的过程。在纽约敲定的一个主计划可能需要穿越半个地球，传真给一位设计师审批。随后，这位设计师会在上面做一些标记，半天后再发回来。最后一分钟添加的人选往往需要用手写在嘉宾名单上；嘉宾回函也需要通过电话一一确认。

    “我们要使用大量的纸张，而且时间效率也是个问题，”KCD公司执行副总裁拉奇纳•沙阿说。这家时装公关公司时常帮助卡尔文•克莱恩(Calvin Klein)和汤米•希尔费格(Tommy Hilfiger)这类大品牌组织走秀活动。

    随后，时装界遇到了埃迪•米隆。2004年，米隆来到KCD公司纽约办事处，从一位职员的电脑中提取了一个病毒。（出生于马拉维、在英国长大的米隆是一位计算机维修工和软件开发人员。KCD公司从米隆在纽约市四处张贴的小广告上知道他这号人物。）他随即成了这家公司的一名技术顾问。米隆在KCD公司每年两次于纽约、伦敦、米兰和巴黎组织的数十场时装秀上隆一次次地目睹了这些公关人员为确定谁坐在哪里而疲于奔命的情形。

    “他们需要50名员工制作一份文档，拍照，扫描，然后传真至巴黎，”米隆回忆说。“我说，‘我可以在电脑上搞定这一切，它会跟视频游戏一样好玩。’”

    这就是Fashion GPS的起源。目前，大多数高端时装秀都在通过这个平台创建座位表，这些时装秀的每一场都有可能催生数亿美元的经济影响。这款由米隆设计的专有软件可以让多场时装秀的主办方同时在一张图表工作。没错，它就是时装版的谷歌文档(Google Docs)。

    时装界的安娜•温图尔和坎耶•韦斯特们可以被拖放至适当的座位，座位分配可以在走秀过程中通过一款iPad应用实时改变，“主要取决于谁来了，谁没来，”米隆说。他还面向秀场观众开发了GPS雷达系统(GPS Radar)。这款智能手机应用不仅能追踪请柬、座位分配表，还可以实时更新秀台的最新画面。此外，他还试用了一下类似机场的自动检录技术和RFID（无线射频识别）标签。在最新一场克里斯汀•迪奥(Christian Dior)时装秀上，他就把RFID标签嵌入嘉宾的纸质邀请函之中，从而让这些脚蹬高跟鞋的观众无需片刻迟疑就可以落落大方地穿过接待生。

    他说：“这样做在欧洲行得通，他们希望收到一张看得见，摸得着的邀请函。”

    对于设计师来说，Fashion GPS一举“改变了秀场的游戏规则，”唐娜•卡兰(Donna Karan)时装公司全球传讯事务高级副总裁阿里扎•利希特说。“我们过去不得不给每位嘉宾发电子邮件，通知他们的座位号。现在，我们只需要轻轻一点，就可以同时把座位安排表发送给500个人。”

    尽管时装界在几乎所有其他方面都特别注重形式，但就Fashion GPS而言，功能强大绝对是一个福音。“无论从哪个角度来看，它都提高了这个流程的效率，” KCD公司的沙阿说。“它让我们可以把心思放在其他事情上，而不是整天为谁应该坐在哪儿这件事忙得焦头烂额。”（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒

    Not long ago, making a seating chart for a fashion show was a pretty ugly process. A master plan hashed out in New York might be faxed halfway around the world to a designer for approval, where it would be marked up and sent back half a day later. Last minute additions to the guest list were made by hand; RSVPs were collected by phone.

    "We were using so much paper, and time efficiency was also an issue," said Rachna Shah, the executive vice president of KCD, a fashion publicity firm that helps organize runway shows for major labels like Calvin Klein (PVH) and Tommy Hilfiger.

    Then the fashion world met Eddie Mullon. In 2004, Mullon arrived at KCD's New York office to extract a virus from a publicist's computer. (The company found out about the Malawi-born, Britain-bred computer repairman and software developer through flyers he had posted around the city.) He became a technology consultant for the firm and watched them struggle to figure out who would sit where at the dozens of shows they organized in New York, London, Milan, and Paris twice a year.

    "They would have 50 people working on a document, taking a picture, scanning it down and faxing it to Paris," Mullon recalled. "I said, 'I could do this on a computer. It would be like a video game.'"

    This was the genesis of Fashion GPS, a platform that creates seating charts for the majority of mainstream, high-end fashion shows, which can each generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact. Mullon built proprietary software that allows multiple show organizers to work on a chart at once -- think of it as Google Docs for the fashion set.

    The Anna Wintours and Kanye Wests of the world can be dragged and dropped into their appropriate seats, and seating assignments can be changed in real time at the event via an iPad app, "depending on who turned up and who didn't," Mullon said. For show-goers, he developed GPS Radar, a smartphone app that keeps track of invitations, seating assignments, and gets updated with the latest images of what's gone down the runway. He has also experimented with airport-style check in kiosks and RFID tags, which he embedded in the paper invitations for Christian Dior's latest show in Paris, allowing attendees to breeze past receptionists with nary a pause in their stiletto-ed stride.

    "The way that Europe works, they want an invitation that's physical," he said.

    For designers, Fashion GPS has been "game-changing," said Aliza Licht, Donna Karan's senior vice president of global communications. "We used to have to e-mail each guest with his or her show seat assignment number. Now we can send seat assignments to five hundred people at the same time in one click."

    And though fashion favors form in nearly every other regard, for Fashion GPS, functionality has been a boon. "From every standpoint, it's made the process more efficient," said KCD's Shah. "It's allowed us to focus on other things, as opposed to just who's sitting where."