The Past, Present and Future of skillVM
skillVM was created in 2008 by Skillsmart Retail, the Sector Skills Council for Retail, as a competition to find the best retail artists in the UK.
In its first year, the competition was run as a demonstration event held at the prestigious In-Store Show, part of Marketing Week Live at London’s Olympia, where teams of two had to create stunning window displays against the clock and to a tight budget. The concept of the competition proved successful and skillVM 09 was unveiled by Mary ‘Queen of Shops’ Portas in October 2008 in a special skillVM launch DVD.
skillVM 09 was split into student and retailer categories and attracted dozens of entries from across all four nations, who completed applications and submitted mood boards on the theme of ‘Window into your World’. The best applicants were invited to compete in one of five live heats in shopping centres across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The three top scoring teams in each category then battled it out in the grand final, once again at the In-Store Show, to be crowned skillVM 09 champions.
For skillVM 10, we will once again be contacting colleges and retailers of all sizes from across the UK to enter their best students and employees.
By 2011, Skillsmart Retail hopes to take the skillVM concept onto the world stage by showcasing visual merchandising in
WorldSkills 2011, to be held in London. This biennial competition, which took place in Calgary, Canada this year, showcases the very best in a host of skills from hairdressing to car maintenance. We hope visual merchandising will be accepted into WorldSkills for the first time in London with the aim of entering a UK team capable of beating the best VMs from around the globe.