Praha 7. 2. 2016: Retail Summit 2016 defended the reputation of the biggest meeting of retailers and their suppliers on the Central European market. In its 22nd year participation reached almost the last year's record - during the three days Clarion Congress Hotel was visited by a total of 1,027 participants.
Representative survey with active participation of 25% delegates confirmed that the organizers were very well prepared for such mass visit - marks for organization, conference facilities and technology kept the last year's high level, evaluation of the quality of catering and social evening has been further improved. The greatest contribution of this Summit was its program and topicality of the theme – the need to increase the value of retail business. The main conference plenary meetings received excellent grades and approached the historical record set in 2003, when claims of participants of course were not as high as they are now.
Positive feedback on informative contribution of Retail Summit 2016 was based on 2 facts, proven both by the written survey as well as by spontaneous comments of participants at the summit:
- Quality of discussion sections remained at high levels, typical for recent years of Summit
- At the same time, however, the quality and performance of speakers in the main plenary program got improved.
The rating of speakers was very balanced. Top marks were given to two owners of Czech companies:
- Vlastislav Bříza of KOH-I-NOOR Holding („life wisdom in 15 minutes, true visionary“) and
- Karel Pilčík of MP Krásno („original presentation of a great and elegant company with clear values“).
Very closely second finished the speaker with a completely different profile – O. Schmitz, the representative of European global e-Commerce leader Amazon.Similarly, the evaluation of discussion sessions did not show any dramatic differences either. Organizers are very pleased that the best marks were given to sections devoted to topics specifically emphasized during program preparations - namely strategy, a dialogue with farmers and coexistence of the Internet and brick and mortar retail. In the hit parade of specialized workshops the first place was taken by section E5 moderated by Martin Tesař, Deloitte: How to increase the value of retail business in the interest of shareholders ("fantastically selected personalities, inspiring great moderation"). Section E4: Business and farmers (moderation Dana Zadražilová, University of Economics in Prague) and F2 Value in e-Commerce (Moderation Ondrej Aust, magazine Médiář) followed on other top ranked positions.
The high number of participants and their positive evaluation of program and organization are a great commitment to prepare the agenda for the next year of Retail Summit. It will be held in Clarion Congress Hotel on
30. 1. –30 Jan – 1 Feb 2017
Put this date in your diary and join the organizers in program preparation. We welcome your suggestions for selecting the main theme and speakers so that Retail Summit 2017 can be again, in the words of one respondent, "the best retail event in the V4 region." And can especially confirm the positive trend that "our retail community in the right direction!"