Sir Stuart Rose, Laura Wade-Gery and Ilan Benhaim are to be the keynote speakers at this year’s Internet Retailing Conference 2013.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of Ocado, Dressipi and more recently Fat Face, will focus at the October 16 event on how we gain insight into the customer, as well as considering the retail business and the future direction of the industry in his keynote. Knighted in 2008 for his services to retail, Sir Stuart is perhaps best known for his role as chief executive of Marks & Spencer, a role he held for six years until 2010.
Current M&S star Laura Wade-Gery is another of our keynote speakers. Wade-Gery, executive director of multichannel ecommerce, will talk about the company’s journey towards cross-channel operations, and the way it combines innovation from its digital lab with its core business. Wade-Gery joined the M&S board in 2011 from tesco.com, where she was previously chief executive.
The third keynote speaker is Ilan Benhaim, co-founder of flash sales giant vente-privee.com, who is travelling from Paris to address the audience of UK retailers on ways of developing their top line, by establishing an international presence and applying the strategies of cross channelling.
The Internet Retailing Conference 2013 takes place at the Novotel in Hammersmith, London. It is expected to attract more than 500 delegates for a conference focused on The New Basics of retail. Outside the conference, some 45 exhibitors will showcase the latest ecommerce and omnichannel technology.
A host of speakers already confirmed include Paul Wright, head of ecommerce at Fat Face, Adam Stewart, marketing director at Play.com, and Shivani Tejuja, ecommerce and multichannel director at New Look.
This year’s conference has three distinct themes, with speakers drawn from across the industry sharing their knowledge of The Customer, The Business and The Industry. There will also be eight free-to-attend workshops.
The Customer conference stream will explore what the customer sees and what they expect, tracking customer behaviour, experience and interaction. The Business stream will consider how retailers are matching and exceeding customers’ expectations while differentiating themselves from competitors. Finally, The Industry stream will look past expected practice to the leading edge that could be the ‘retail basics’ of future years.
To find out more and to book your place, visit the Internet Retailing Conference 2013 website. Book early to claim an earlybird rate, valid for all bookings made up before August 1.
