After three successful years in Barcelona, this year the annual World Retail Congress (WRC) will take place in Berlin, Germany with full aim to drive growth in the global retail economy, promote the benefits of global retail excellence and gain sustainable, competitive edge in domestic and international markets. The global retail veterans will congregate in the city from 21-23 April, 2010, to debate on ‘What the future holds for retail’.
Over 100 leading retail leaders will speak at the Congress this year, drawn from a diverse range of industry sectors and international markets. Attendees are set to hear from such luminaries as Dr Eckhard Cordes, chairman and CEO, Metro Group; Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry; Hans Schmitt, senior vice president, Hugo Boss; Philipp Schindler, vice president, Google; Sarita Nayyar, head of Consumer Industries, World Economic Forum USA; Mindy Grossman, CEO, HSN Inc and Laura Wade-Grey, CEO, Tesco.com.
The speakers from India includes William Bissell, MD, Fabindia; Gunender Kapur, president of Reliance Retail (food); Bijou Kurlen, president, Reliance Lifestyle; Arvind Singhal, chairman, Technopak and J Suresh, CEO of Arvind Brands.
Patience Wheatcroft, editor-in-chief, Wall Street Journal, Europe, will host a debate session on ‘Building a ‘new retailing’ in a world of change – facing up to the new reality’.
With three weeks to go, the Congress has witnessed a substantial increase in the number of confirmed attendees as comapred to the same stage last year. The retailers seem to have realised that they can no longer think or operate in isolation and will congregate in Berlin to collectively debate the strategies that will see them through the continued consumer spending famine and position their business for long term stability and growth.
— IndiaRetailing Bureau
