National retail leaders and the brands of Home Depot, Nintendo, Lego and Ghirardelli are registered for the 2013 Retail Merchandising & Marketing Conference, to be held April 27-30 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Representatives from 13 countries as far away as Russia will attend the international conference, to be hosted by the newly rebranded World Alliance for Retail Excellence & Standards, formerly NARMS International. Headlining as keynote speakers are: Robin Lewis of The Robin Report; Lily Lev-Glick of Shopper Sense; Gerry O’Brion, to address the topic of “What Big Brands Know”; and Matt Herlevic of Sam’s Club. These speakers will augment the educational and informative breakout sessions, a trade show with the latest technology and services as well as manufacturer and retailer forums and panel discussions.
In addition, World Alliance is partnering with Enactus to sponsor a golf tournament, with all profits going to benefit the nonprofit organization’s mission of bringing together student, academic and business leaders to use the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world.
The theme for the upcoming conference is “Learn. Change. Grow.” A six-person panel will provide guidance and insights on topics ranging from creating an ecosystem that expands connections to customers to the development of customer-centric products to executing contact strategy and using creativity to craft powerful brand reputations. Featured panelists include Sean Cook, CEO of ShopVisible; Eric Holtzclaw, CEO and founder of Laddering Works; Jennifer Kwiatkowski, director of circulation and analytics for Plow and Health; Dave McMullen, partner/strategic planner for redpepper; Florian Vollmer, SVP of design and principal at InRealiy; and Lisa Calhoun, CEO of Write2Market.
