The Retail Conference 2010 - Video Review

This year we're sharing the video with you as part of The Retail Conference 2010 post event review...

The Retail Conference 2010 - What a great day!

The Retail Conference 2010 took place on Wednesday 22nd September at America Square Conference Centre in London. Almost 300 people were booked to attend and it really was an incredibly busy day! Throughout the day we took advantage of social media - with a live feed of tweets using #TRC10 posted through to 2 large screens around the venue. You can see these if you search twitter for #TRC10 too...

Breakfast Meetings

As always the event opened with a choice of breakfast workshops - the most popular being delivered by e-mphasis internet marketing, the topic being 'Multi-Channel Search Marketing - Focus on Local'

For more about e-mphasis who delivered that popular session see Multi-channel Search Marketing

Conference Chairman

The main event kicked off with 3rd time conference chairman, Andy Lopata, introducing the day - the focus of which was 'Dynamic Retailing' - very apt given the pace of change in the sector over recent years!

For more about Andy Lopata see Andy Lopata Conference Chairman

The Retail Conference 2010 - Agenda

As promised delegates of The Retail Conference 2010 were spoilt for choice! The main body of the day split up into 4 choices - so delegates elected to either stay and listen to seminar presentations or attend 1 of 3 concurrent workshops.

Seminars - Crabtree & Evelyn; Aurora Fashions (Oasis, Coast, Warehouse, Karen Millen)

The first seminar speaker up was Catie Callender, Managing Director for EMEA of Crabtree & Evelyn. Catie delivered a warm and engaging talk that really set the scene for the day. Catie was followed by a speaker who proved to be the star turn! Hash Ladha, Group Multi-Channel Director from Aurora Fashions was so well received he really stole the show! His talk was about the new customer - it was pacey, relevant, funny and informative - he cut through jargon and marketing mumbo jumbo with a direct and to the point style that really worked for the audience!

Workshops - Retail Trust & Skillsmart Retail; CTS Retail; SMG & Superdrug

Whilst Catie and Hash were speaking many delegates were enjoying sessions delivered by Skillsmart Retail and The Retail Trust; SMG and Superdrug; and, CTS Retail.

Delegates who attended these sessions had great fun as all were interactive as well as informative...

After all that excitement it was time for the mid morning break, where, inspired by Andy Lopata's opening address, much networking was done!

Seminars - Naomi Paget from T.M.Lewin; Thomas Power from Ecademy - lets Go Social!

The next 2 speakers in the main seminars had a common message - the importance in modern retailing of social media, social networks and ultimately, as Naomi Paget from T.M.Lewin proved, having a 'community'. Both speakers were so passionate, informative and engaging - delegates commented on how they learnt so much from both. They key take away however was that a social strategy has to have the backing of the CEO, and, those businesses who begin to take a social economy seriously NOW will lead the game as the market evolves.

Workshops - Charteris; K3 Retail; and CitySprint with ASOS & House of Fraser!

Whilst Naomi and Thomas were getting social, delegates who chose workshops had 3 fab sessions to pick from. The highlight of these was CitySprint with not 1 but 2 retailer client success stories to share. CitySprint were integral to ASOS.com having the capability to offer same day delivery and Hilton Eachus explained why ASOS work with them. Tony Carr from House of Fraser explained why they worked with CitySprint for the delivery of their wedding list service. A Brilliantly interactive session with some real insights into the stories of 2 incredible retail businesses!

End of Morning Panel Discussion - Social Media, Social Networks, Online Communities - what's all the fuss about?

The morning was rounded off when all delegates rejoined for the panel. The panel was hosted by the wonderful David McQueen from Magnificent Minds and included our very own conference chairman, Andy Lopata, in his capacity as a business networking strategist; Naomi Paget from T.M.Lewin as a phenomenal example of a retailer early adopter; Thomas Power as chairman of Ecademy, the UKs original social network for the benefit of business people (founded in 1998!) and last but not least, Nick Tadd of Social Media Graffitti, a leading writer, speaker and blogger about the effect of online media on human communications and interactions!

The only complaint about this panel was that they all were in violent agreement - still, this may prove they can't all be wrong...

Next was the lunch break.

Lunch and Networking...

Possibly the main reason we come back, year in, year out, to the Cavendish Conference Venues, is the fantastic lunch! The salad, salmon, tortellini, fresh veg, cake, fruit and cheese platters were frankly incredible - for a buffet at a conference it was as good as a quality restaurant!

Over lunch much networking was done - we had the pleasure of talking to Alex Paphitis, Theo's son (from Dragon's Den); Nigel Rothband, CEO of Retail Trust; Thomas Power; Yaser Martini; Ben Taylor; Clive West and many many others..

After lunch it was back to the agenda - seminars included Andy Parkinson from BrightHouse and Rob Collins from Waitrose. Workshops included Retail Acumen & Exceedra, K3 Retail and Netbiscuits...

Seminars - BrightHouse and Waitrose

You can't get much further apart in the target customer demographic than the organisations that these 2 speakers represented! Andy from BrightHouse talked about how Retail Trust (our chosen charity) was helping them support their teams. In common with supporting the teams, Rob from Waitrose explained how they partner with Skillsmart Retail to enhance the learning and development of the John Lewis partners.

Delegates learned a great deal about both John Lewis Partnership and BrightHouse as well as about Retail Trust and Skillsmart Retail.

Meanwhile, in the workshops...

Workshops - Netbiscuits; K3 Retail; and Retail Acumen & Exceedra...

The Retail Acumen & Exceedra joint session covered how every percentage point improvement in forecast accuracy can lead to a percentage point saving in the cost of inventory! Richard Nicholas from Exceedra talked about how Vision Express have implemented his system within 4 weeks, and how with just 1 user they have been able to improve DC availability by 24%...

That's enough to really make you need an afternoon pick-me-up - and so followed the coffee break with a selection of to-be-expected delicious cakes and fruit! After the coffee break it was time for the final sessions of the day...

Seminars - Carpetright and ASDA

The last 2 seminar speakers from the day were Ian Woosey, Group IT Director from Carpetright and Clive West, Operations Director - New Business from ASDA. 2 extremely experienced retailers talking about how to reduce IT costs without losing capability and how to move from channel to multi-channel.

Ian shared some killer questions for people in the business to challenge IT with and Clive was described as 'a perfect summary of the day'. Both were fantastic. In fact, for the first time ever, ALL speakers had incredible feedback - what a hard collection of acts to follow for the 2011 event!

Workshops - Retail Acumen; e-mphasis

Whilst Ian and Clive shared their expertise with the audience in seminars Retail Acumen were talking about what the big retail multiples can learn from the most successful of the SME / Independent retailers. e-mphasis were doing a repeat of their breakfast session 'Multi-channel search marketing - focus on local'.

In the e-mphasis session delegates learned about the risks of not managing their Google Places listings and the benefits of leveraging Google Places Optimisation as a cohesive addition to their search marketing strategy.

At the close of these sessions it was time for delegates to move through to the main seminar room for the end of day panel discussion.

End of Day Panel Discussion - What's next in retail? The year ahead and beyond from the perspective of 4 successful retailers

An impressive line up indeed - Catie Callender, Hash Ladha, Ian Woosey and Clive West made up the end of day panel ably facilitated by David McQueen. What an opportunity for delegates to get honest and insightful answers to their questions - with luxury toiletries, fashion, homewares and a supermarket represented, and all at director level!

Closing Words, and see you at The Retail Conference 2011

Andy Lopata summed up the day and everyone made their way home - so now the planning for The Retail Conference 2011 begins! This takes place at America Square Conference Centre on 21st September 2011.

Register now for The Retail Conference 2011