Born in 1972 in Switzerland, he began his career in the watch industry, working internationally for ten years with brands such as Swatch, Omega, Longines, and Gucci Timepieces, and specializing in Public Relations. His subsequent role at a Zurich-based PR agency, focused on Public Affairs, led him in 2000 to his next position in Nation Branding at Presence Switzerland, a department within the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. In 2008, he returned to the Swatch Group as Head of International Communications at RADO. From 2011 to 2021, he served as Director and Curator of the Design Prize Switzerland, one of the leading platforms in the design industry. In 2022, he founded the agency Enabling Design Collaborations GmbH in Biel/Bienne, where he works with designers, brands, and institutions on positioning, design relevance, collaborations, and network development.

Following his apprenticeship as an embroidery designer, Martin joined the textile company Jakob Schlaepfer in 1973. From 1989 to 2018, he was Creative Director and a member of the management board at Schlaepfer, where he and his team designed over 1,000 fabrics for the fashion world every year. With his exclusive fabric creations, he plays a decisive role in determining what will be considered a new fashion trend tomorrow. In 2004 he designed the exhibition “Bling Bling” in the Landesmuseum Zurich for the 100th anniversary of the company. He has been awarded countless prizes for his work, including the Swiss Grand Prix of Design from the Federal Office of Culture and the renowned American Cotton Design Award. Today, he works in his private studio.

Sandra Mbanefo Obiago is a curator and creative industry expert, with over 30 years of experience in art, development, and edutainment. She is Founder and Artistic Director of SMO Contemporary Art, which curates exhibitions on artists of African descent, and documents and manages public, private, and corporate art collections. She started her career in 1988 at the European Business Channel in Zurich, before joining the environmental group, WWF International, where she was responsible for communications and photo-journalism across Sub-Saharan Africa for eight years. In 1998 she founded Communicating for Change (CFC), a media for development social enterprise based in Lagos, Nigeria. Her award winning films, radio programs, and campaigns focused on creativity and sustainable development; her film, For Love of Indigo, celebrating the legendary Nigerian textile artist Nike Okundaye, showed how art can foster socio-economic growth, enhance cultural pride & strengthen identity. Obiago is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s African Leadership Initiative for West Africa (ALIWA) and her creative projects have received grants from many global institution including the Ford Foundation, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Access Bank and others. She has a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Manitoba in Canada, and a Masters of Arts degree in Telecommunications from Michigan State University, USA.

René Rossi has been working for over 25 years as a researcher at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. He studied applied physics and was awarded his PhD in Technical Sciences at ETH Zurich. Since 2003, René Rossi has been leading the Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles at Empa, an interdisciplinary group of around 40 researchers. He is lecturer for Thermal Physiology and Sports Textiles at ETH Zurich and Guest Professor at the University of Haute-Alsace in Mulhouse, France. His research focus is smart textiles, in particular fibre-based sensors for body monitoring as well as hybrid fibres for controlled substance release.

Barbara Signer works as an artist and in her artistic work deals with the emergence of realities and tries to get hold of the incomprehensible, the uncertain. In her works, the imaginary and the real merge into fiction. Since a high school exchange year in 1999, the artist has repeatedly spent time in Japan and later also in China. After a year at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), she studied Japanese Studies at the University of Zurich from 2004 to 2014. In the meantime, she attended Kansai University in Osaka from 2005 to 2006 and completed an internship at the Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo in 2008. In the following years, she spent time abroad in Beijing, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome, among other places.

lic.phil. Ursula Steinhauser studied prehistory and early history, medieval archaeology and paleontology at the University of Zurich. She later completed postgraduate studies at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Communication, Management and Leadership. After working for many years as a cultural mediator in various museums and as a freelance archaeologist, she headed the Seemuseum Kreuzlingen from 2015 to 2020. Since July 2020, she has headed the Office of Culture of the Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden.

Domenica Tischhauser is a trained dressmaker and designed wedding dresses and evening wear for women. After her initial training, she continued her education to become a textile engineer and after graduation worked for Jakob Schläpfer AG St.Gallen. There she took on the responsibility of purchasing fabrics and raw materials and for 5 years as product manager she coordinated sales and production at Boller Textiles. She was also part of the Collection Development team of "HUGO Man and Woman" at Hugo Boss in Coldrerio. From 2008 - 2017, Domenica Tischhauser was responsible for the management and further development of the business unit Mira X Fabrics in Bühler as a member of the management board. Since 2017, she is responsible for the "Product Development Carpets and Fabrics" of Tisca Tischhauser AG.

Roman Wild is a historian and cultural manager. He studied General History, Economics, and Sociology at the University of Zurich. From 2011 to 2015, he worked as a research assistant at the Research Center for Social and Economic History. Subsequently, he researched and taught for five years in the Competence Center for Product & Textile at the Lucerne School of Design & Art. From 2021 to 2024, Roman Wild worked at the Textile Museum St. Gallen, where he was responsible for various research and exhibition projects as a curator. His major publications include the economic history dissertation At Every Step. The Swiss Shoe Market 1918-1948 published in 2019, and the design history book project Luxurious Entanglements. A Transnational History of the Zurich Silk Industry co-authored with Alexis Schwarzenbach and Monika Burri (in preparation). Currently, the exhibitions Good Fabric (Permanent exhibition at the Textile Museum St. Gallen) and Sensation Silk (Pop-up exhibition at the Long Night of Zurich Museums at the Palais Rechberg Zurich) co-curated by him, are on display.