Retail Summit 2012: The program published and attracted a special interest; till the end of December more than 400 participants registered
Published 12/29/2011

Despite the unfavourable economic prospects and a heavy atmosphere in companies Retail Summit 2012 meets with extreme interest. 5 weeks prior to the date of event (31st Jan -1st Feb 2012), there are already over 400 participants registered. That confirms the hypothesis of organizers that especially in hard times the need to get together to search for inspiration, how to operate successfully on the market, is much more urgent. 

The program of Retail Summit 2012 triggered immediately after the publication a special interest, and so already in December, the number of registered participants has exceeded four hundred. After the experience of past years most of them have registered for both conference days. The most popular part of the first day of the 18th Retail Summit is opening Top Top panel, moderated by Jakub Zelezny from Czech Television that present, inter alia, Miroslav Kalousek, the Minister of finance, Andrej Babiš, Managing Director  Agrofert Holding, Karel Janeček, the businessman and initiator of the anti-corruption fund  or Zdeněk Tůma, former Governor of the CNB and now consultant to KPMG. Within the opening panel they will discuss an economic outlook and its impact in terms of consumption and financial policy of the banks, as well as the broader issues of corporate social responsibility in difficult economic times.

The keynote speaker in the next conference block, Dr. David Bosshart of Swiss think tank GDI, will outline parameters of “Future success”, followed by the expert forecast Retail Vision 2015 by INCOMA GfK. Challenges of the present and visions of the future will be also addressed in the  new attractive program format - Dialogue of the retailer and supplier between Doug Brodman, CEO of Plzensky Prazdroj and Martin Ditmar, CEO of the Spar company and Vice-President SOCR ČR.

However, economic recession is not the only cause of stagnation that the Czech retail is facing. A certain rigidity of functioning of retailers in the market plays also a key role, as well as the lack of invention. Therefore practical sessions in the program of the second day will play an important information role focusing on ideas, procedures, or new opportunities of modern technologies. Discussion workshops will present an inspiring knowledge intended both for large chains as well as for specialized dealers and manufacturers.

Most of the participants are interested in the sections of Retail & Strategy, Retail & Marketing Communication, Retail & Regional/National Brands and Retail & Cooperation.

The novelty of this year´s summit  is an interesting section with philosophical context  Retail & Inspiration from Elsewhere, which will look for invention for further development of retail on the highly saturated and adult market from recognized entrepreneurs from "non-retail" sectors. On the contrary, highly practical content of the section promises Trade & new media and technology, where domestic and foreign experts will deal with non-traditional methods of communication with customers, new methods of payment, using the analytical data for increasing turnover or procedures, using technologies to predict the demand as precisely as possible.

The Summit will be held with the support of many important partners, Platinum partners are Postovni sporitelna, part of the CSOB, Telefónica Czech Republic and Plzenske Pivovary. The Program is available on the Internet address www.retail21.cz, where you can register to participate. The delegates, who shall make the payments till December 31, 2011, have the possibility to take advantage of the favourable conditions for "Early Birds".

For more detailed information about the Retail Summit 2012:
Barbora Krásná, Partner, Blue Events
e-mail: barbora.krasna@blueevents.eu

Media contact:
Zuzana Mračková, Client Service Manager, Blue Events
Tel.: + 420 222 749 841, e-mail: zuzana.mrackova@blueevents.eu

Contact for parties interested in the partnership:
Petra Veselovská, Account Manager, Blue Events
Tel.: + 420 737 250 356, e-mail: petra.veselovska@blueevents.eu