The Retail Conference

The Retail Conference 2010 boasts two interactive panel discussions on the agenda; the first to round off the morning, the second to round off the afternoon.

Interesting and engaging, these sessions will be a great way for delegates to hear views from the panel, and to voice their opinions on the matter for discussion as well...

Back by popular demand, hosting and facilitating these sessions, taking your questions and comments back to the panel, and asking some of the difficult questions you would like to hear answered, we are pleased to confirm Patrick Ballin. Once again we're delighted to welcome Patrick back to The Retail Conference. He is a great facilitator, and with an audience full of senior retailers who want to express their opinions and challenge the panel on their views, he needs to be!

Full details of the 2010 panel topics and panellists will be avaiable in due course, so as an example of the kind of panels you can expect at the 2010 event details of the 2009 sessions are below. Please click the links to find out more.

The Retail Conference 2009 - End of Morning Panel Discussion

The Retail Conference 2009 - End of Day Panel Discussion

The Retail Conference 2009 - Panel Leader and Facilitator, Patrick Ballin

The end of morning panel discussion will focus on efficiency, cost cutting and revenue generating - and ask why is this more of a focus in tough times? The panellists and audience will be challenged with the thought that a good business focuses on these critical success factors all the time to reap the highest rewards when times are good and have enough in the kitty to weather the storm when times are bad...

Panelists for the end of morning discussion include:

• Ian Woosey, Group IT Director, Carpetright
• Alison Jordan, Commercial and Marketing Director, Fortnum & Mason
• Hussein Lalani, Commercial Director, 99p Stores
• Andy Banks, Supply Chain Development, Waitrose

To find out more about any of the panelists please see the speakers page.

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The end of day panel discussion will focus on the year ahead, and beyond. As well as quizzing the panelists further about issues that have arisen during the day, Patrick will be asking them for their views about retailing in a challenging climate.

• Is cost leadership a winning position?
• Should retailers be majoring on service?
• And how can retailers who trade neither on value nor service avoid 'death in the middle'?
• Is it better to be driving revenue, cutting costs or a balance of both?
• How do you drive revenue in an ultra-competitive high street?

He will also ask the panelists for their one big idea as they head into the busiest period of the retail year; and their predictions for the thrivers and survivors over the next 12 months.

Panelists for the end of day discussion include:

• Nick Samuel, Non-Executive Director, Various Retail Organisations
• Catie Callendar, Chief Operating Officer, Crabtree & Evelyn
• Alan White, Chief Executive, N Brown Group PLC
• Milton Guffogg, Former Chief Executive of Celebrations Cards Group
• Nigel J L Rothband, Chief Executive, Retail Trust

To find out more about any of the panelists please see the speakers page.

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Working with organisations across the private, public and non-profit sectors, Patrick helps senior managers and global teams to enhance their professional performance and achieve their business and career goals.

Patrick became involved in executive coaching and leadership development as an alumnus of the Global Leadership Development Programme at The Body Shop, as a result of which he was invited to coach a number of senior colleagues and act a mentor for an international charity. An interactive coaching style and one-to-one executive coaching are key elements of his approach to achieving change, developing leaders and building high-functioning international teams. His developmental approach is supportive, active, participative and oriented towards both short-term goals and longer-term change. He is a qualified practitioner in Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (steps 1 & 2), Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and has completed Advanced Coaching training at Ashridge.

Patrick's consulting assignments combine his extensive technical experience in global project teams, retail supply chains and systems with coaching, leadership development and change management. As well as being a Director of his own executive coaching and consultancy practice, Mile One Limited, Patrick is a senior associate with Retail Acumen and co-founder of a non-profit organisation, jaykayjay.org, which applies social networking tools to aid seriously ill people, their friends and families.

Patrick lectures at the business schools at Brighton, Cranfield and Warwick. He holds an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Before starting Mile One in October 2006, Patrick worked in technical and managerial positions within the personal computer industry. He joined The Body Shop in 1992, where he went on to become Global Head of Supply Chain and Logistics Development, responsible for delivering large-scale change in retail supply chain processes and systems across multiple global teams and cultures. He served for four years as a Trustee for The Body Shop Foundation, an innovative and international registered charity.

Patrick's current professional interests include coaching for talent retention, leading global teams and career development. He is currently co-ordinating the ReWork programme for the charity Retail Trust, helping people to restart their retail careers following redundancy.

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