The Retail Conference

The Retail Conference 2010, organised by Retail Acumen, takes place on 22nd September 2010 at America Square Conference Centre. Now in its 4th year, this fantastic event still offers retailers FREE attendance*.

The Retail Conference is the UK's leading retail industry focused event encompassing seminars, workshops, thought-leadership and networking for senior decision makers and those who define business strategy in the retail sector.

When you attend The Retail Conference you will benefit from:

• Motivating and inspiring success stories from engaging Retailer Speakers
• Debate and interaction during topical workshops and roundtable discussions
• Insights into what other retailers are doing from real-world case studies
• Networking with other retailers, sharing common experiences, issues and challenges
• Time out to focus on what really matters to you in your business
• Renewed passion and enthusiasm, plus some great new ideas to put into practice!

The Retail Conference is the not-to-be-missed event offering engaging content, delivered by retailers for retailers, enabling you to expand your knowledge and gain insight into what the rest of the market is up to!

We have created an agenda structure that offers an amazing choice to delegates, with something for everyone and not a moment of the day is wasted.

As a registered delegate you will have the opportunity to participate in your choice of:

• 4 Breakfast Meetings - to get your day off to a great start
• 16 Workshops - you can delve deeper into specific topics
• 8 Seminars - you will hear from retail speakers sharing real-life case studies from their own experiences
• 2 Panel Discussions - you can quiz the panellists, exploring relevant, current issues

The flexible agenda ensures you can make best use of your time on the day and enables you to take time-out to think about how you would apply the ideas that come to your business.

Amongst all of the many retail events available The Retail Conference is the only one of its type to be offered FREE of charge to retailers, not-for-profit organisations and members of the press*.

The Retail Conference is ideal for those who want to:

• Network with, learn from, and talk to over 200 retailers,
• Discover what's going on in the market and,
• Consider how that could affect your business...

*A charge of £499+VAT is made to all other attendees.

Speakers who have already confirmed for 2010 include:

• Catie Callendar, Global Chief Operating Officer, Crabtree & Evelyn
• Ian Woosey, Group IT Director, Carpetright
• Alison Jordan, Commercial and Marketing Director, Fortnum & Mason
• Steve Delo, Director of Merchandise and Space Planning, B&Q

Further speakers and Panellists are yet to be confirmed. Some examples of speakers from the 2009 event include:

• Gillian Berkmen, Group Brand and Commercial Director, Mothercare
• Alan White, Chief Executive, N Brown Group
• Hussein Lalani, Commercial Director, 99p Stores
• Hamish Paton, Commercial Director, BrightHouse
• Sally Brighton, Community Giving Director, Save the Children
• Jonathon Bayne, Head of Technical Services, Sustainability & Regulatory Affairs, Musgrave Retail Partners GB
• Nigel J L Rothband, Chief Executive, Retail Trust
• Guy Vaughan, Director, POPAI UK & Ireland (Point of Purchase Advertising International)
• Nick Samuel, Non-Executive Director, Various Retail
• Milton Guffogg, Former Chief Executive, Celebrations Cards Group
• Andy Lopata, Conference Chairman, Business Networking Expert

We welcome all kinds of retailers - from single store to leading multiples. If you have responsibility for leading a function, delivering the strategy or implementing change you can't afford not to join us.

Examples of the organisations whose directors and senior managers attended the 2009 event are listed below:

The theme for The Retail Conference 2010 will be Dynamic Retailing

Each year we determine a theme to connect the event content - the aim being to keep it relevant for you, the audience.

In 2007 the theme was intelligent retailing, and in 2008 it was efficient retailing. We explored an efficient shopping experience - available product, on shelf and excellent customer service - to an efficient supply chain - from range and assortment planning to visual merchandising decisions. We then reflected on how that ultimately tied back to the efficient shopper experience...

In 2009 the theme was responsive retailing. Given the economic environment and the fact that the UK and much of the developed world was in recession this theme enabled us to explore how survival, and growth, in a recession was (and still is) all about the retailers ability to respond to the needs and wants of the consumer.

With 3 great years of history now at The Retail Conference, and with each year raising the bar on the last, we have decided on the theme of "Dynamic Retailing".