The press conference for the 2026 China Famous Consumer Goods Industry Innovation Contest was held at the Changning Hongqiao Business Service Center on the morning of July 15. As a vital platform for the district to stimulate consumption innovation and foster high-quality renowned brands, the contest aims to discover outstanding consumer brands and projects, and help domestic premium consumer brands expand nationwide and go global through Changning's advantages.

Co-hosted by the China Center for Information Industry Development and the People's Government of Changning District, the contest is undertaken by the China Software Testing Center and the Changning District Commerce Commission. It will run from October to December this year.

Based on the core theme of "AI empowering innovative development of the consumer goods industry," the contest sets up three major tracks - Product Innovation, Technological Breakthroughs, and New Consumption Scenarios.The Product Innovation Track adheres to the fundamental goals of benefiting people's livelihoods and boosting consumption. It pushes product value to shift from merely meeting functional demands to delivering elevated user experiences. Centering on five livelihood sectors – national trendy fashion, infant and youth growth supplies, student health products, elderly care supplies and functional sports goods – the track selects innovative products featuring high technical content, superior user experience and great market potential.Targeting prominent industrial pain points, the Technological Breakthroughs Track consolidates the technical foundation for industrial digital and intelligent transformation. It screens innovative solutions for the digital upgrading of cosmetics, textiles and apparel, modern food, smart home and other industries. Winning solutions excel in production process renovation, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and green transition capacity.The New Consumption Scenarios Track connects production, circulation and consumption via scenario innovation to build a balanced matching system for supply and demand. Focusing on five innovative consumption models – platform-based consumption, shared consumption, health and wellness consumption, sports consumption and experiential consumption – it identifies replicable and scalable new retail formats.

The contest will award 10 first prizes, 20 second prizes, 30 third prizes and multiple Outstanding Organization Awards. All winning projects gain five exclusive supportive incentives including investment and financing matchmaking, joint research cooperation, startup incubation support, access to industrial events and all-round brand promotion services.

AI agents and the contest boost each other's development. The application of intelligent agents will serve as a core judging standard in fields including national trend fashion development, personalized cosmetics R&D and flexible intelligent manufacturing of textiles and garments. Judges will prioritize intelligent agents applied in full-link design, formula development, quality control and other segmented links. Relying on the contest platform, organizers will carry out regular competency evaluations of scenario-specific AI agents to form unified, credible technical judging criteria, improving the professionalism, fairness and scientific rigor of the competition.

Changning is a core carrier district of Shanghai's international consumption center. Benefiting from its geographic advantage as part of the Hongqiao International Open Hub, it boasts a solid fashion consumption industrial foundation. Over 200 fashion brands have set up operations here, alongside multiple integrated fashion industrial complexes. At the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Changning issued the three-year action plan "Fashion Changning, Enjoyable Consumption (2026–2028)."Targeting six key consumption sectors, the plan upgrades consumption venues, completes industrial chains and strengthens the industrial ecosystem to build the well-known regional brand "Fashion Changning." The district has long optimized its business environment and leverages Hongqiao's preferential policies to deliver targeted services and cross-border development support for enterprises.

Matching its local industrial strengths, Changning will fully open industrial scenarios, ramp up resource support and deliver comprehensive service guarantees to host the contest. It will help winning high-quality projects access market channels, secure full financial and supply chain resources, and enjoy talent housing and overseas expansion support.The district will open landmark industrial parks for product debut pop-up events and fully furnished ready-to-occupy office spaces. It will coordinate financial resources and core supply chain leaders to accelerate the integration of projects into local industrial ecosystems. Changning will implement talent housing policies and provide one-stop overseas expansion services via the Hongqiao Overseas Development Service Center and its 15-minute overseas service circle, streamlining the introduction of international talents and the export of domestic products.

Following the press conference, the China Center for Information Industry Development will roll out nationwide promotion of the contest in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Tianjin, and Liaoning, as well as key universities across the country. It will organize document reviews and expert evaluations to select outstanding entries. After the contest concludes, the institute will continuously improve supporting services including supply-demand matching, financing support and omnichannel marketing. It will turn contest prototypes into mass-produced goods and upgrade high-quality products into nationally famous brands, striving to build a complete innovation ecosystem for China's premium consumer goods.

Zhu Min, Deputy Director of the China Center for Information Industry Development, Zhao Yongzun, Deputy District of Changning District, and other relevant officials attended the event. They gave a comprehensive briefing on the contest and answered questions from journalists.