The Retail Conference

At The Retail Conference 2010 you will hear from 8 engaging expert speakers delivering insights and real-life case studies from their own experiences.

Details of the seminars are below - please click the links for more details. Additional seminar information will be added as soon as it is available.

The customer - The heart of dynamic retailing

The new customer - The new customer experience

Cutting IT Costs, How to Really Cut Cost and Maintain Capability

Access all areas - how social media can benefit you and your customers

Why even brands need to become Known, Liked and Followed in the new online social world

The Change Imperative - Embedding Transformation

This seminar, entitled 'The customer - the heart of dynamic retailing', will be delivered by Catie Callender, Managing Director EMEA, Crabtree & Evelyn.

At the heart of dynamic retailing is the customer. Catie will share Crabtree & Evelyn's journey to date on working to deliver systems, communication and HR strategies for a single brand identity that is customer centric.

The art of being dynamic is to keep a consistent brand element alive across all sales channels. Catie will share the challenges of doing this not only in retail and ecommerce but also in the wholesale area of the business, when not all elements of the brand experience are within your control...

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This seminar, entitled 'The new customer - the new customer experience', will be delivered by Hash Ladha, Group Multi-Channel Director from Aurora Fashions.

In July 2010, and just 11 months after the disastrous Icelandic financial issues which put them into Administration, Aurora Fashions announced excellent profit figures. During this talk Hash will share his views on the changing multi-channel customer and how it is imperative to focus on their needs... and Aurora can certainly attribute much of their recent success on this strategy.

Hash will talk around:

• How customers have changed. He will look at the changing needs and demands of customers
• How marketers need to change - the old rules no longer apply. Hash will discuss how marketers can truly capture the mood of their customers and show they really understand them
• Who is the brand - the retailer or the customer. He will debate the empowered generation who refused to be marketed to and he will ask how can we, as retailers, respond to this
• The true meaning of customer experience - its more than being functional, its more than just great product... So what is it?
• Creating a customer experience - he will explain that this is about really thinking end to end and understanding what customers need at every stage - even when things go wrong.
• Creating brand advocacy - its money well spent... And ask, is advertising really dead?
• Finally, he will ask where all this will end up. He will take a brief look at social trends and technology going forward.

This session will be enlightening, engaging and a must attend for dynamic multi-channel retailers who want to not only survive but to thrive in the new customer-led world.

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This seminar, entitled 'Cutting IT Costs, How to Really Cut Cost and Maintain Capability', will be delivered by Ian Woosey, Group IT and e-Commerce Director at Carpetright.

This will be a no nonsense, practical guide to understanding, challenging and cutting IT cost without sacrificing capability from one of the UK's leading retail IT Directors.

• Do you want to explore real life examples of where you can begin to look without having to invest large amounts of capital?
• Are you fed up being told it can't be done or is too complicated and you won't understand?
• Would you like to know where to look for easy quick wins and which pitfalls to avoid?

Ian Woosey, Group IT and e-Commerce Director at Carpetright, Europe's largest flooring retailer, will share with you the lessons he has learned in the last 20 years working with technology in retail.

In a business focused session Ian will give you easy to implement approaches, top tips, searching questions to ask back at the office, and explode some popular myths along the way. You be surprised at how simple some of this can be to achieve, how quickly you can do it and at the savings that are there to be had, if you know how to get them.

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This seminar, entitled Access all areas - how social media can benefit you and your customers, will be delivered by Naomi Paget, Head of Customer Relationship Marketing at T.M.Lewin.

Naomi will talk about how T.M.Lewin's online community 'Off The Cuff' has helped the brand to engage in honest and open 1:1 conversation with their customers and given them fantastic insight into their products and service.

This real life community case study will include practical tips on how to get a community off the ground and the planning processes involved, how to really excite and educate customers about your brand through personal conversation, and how to get everyone within your company involved in your social media marketing. Naomi will talk through the key things you can do to make your community successful, how you monitor that success, and the things to watch out for when using social media as part of your overall marketing strategy.

With social media and social networking becoming an unignorable element of the marketing mix, this session is a must attend for all those who want to find out more, not just the theory, but from a retailer who has actually put it all into practice.

Naomi will also be involved in the end of morning panel discussion, so you will get the opportunity to ask more searching questions of her then to.

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This seminar, entitled Why even brands need to become Known, Liked and Followed in the new online social world, will be delivered by Thomas Power, Chairman of the UKs first online social network, Ecademy.

Thomas will address the future of social media and why it's not a fad, why it's not passing through. He will consider how community building will become the key skill for marketing folk and how to build a brand online with limited time and resources.

Finally, Thomas will talk about a 3-step process to real engagement. This is best articulated the book 'Know me, Like me, Follow me' written by Penny Power, the founder of Ecademy and Thomas' wife and business partner. Thomas will explain how even the largest of organisations can engage the consumer through online media to secure their loyalty and advocacy if the principles of 'Know me, Like me, Follow me' are followed.

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This seminar, entitled The Change Imperative - Embedding Transformation, will be delivered by Andy Parkinson, Retail Director at BrightHouse Stores Group.

The BrightHouse track record over the past five years is impressive. In both like for like sales, and in profit performance, a compound annual double digit growth rate has been achieved throughout this period. At the same time, the Company has expanded from 130 to 200 stores, and has installed a plethora of strategic change initiatives. These are designed to establish an infrastructure for further exponential growth.

Andy will explain the three dynamic phases of the BrightHouse strategic change programme:

• Business Turnaround
• Embedding Transformation, and
• Accelerated Rollout

He will reflect on the practical application of the BrightHouse core values, in particular Customer Focus, Integrity, and Empowerment.

He also will explore how BrightHouse fosters a 'can do' entrepreneurial culture, whilst also seeking to optimise consistency and best practice. For 2010/11, the BrightHouse store opening programme has been increased to 30 new stores.

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