More than 4,000 visitors are expected at next year’s Internet Retailing Expo, to be held at the NEC in Birmingham on March 21 and 22 2012.
At the heart of the Expo (IRX 2012) is an exhibition of more than 150 suppliers to the ecommerce and multichannel industries. Sitting alongside it is a two-day learning programme, Selling in the Digital Age, and a new Innovation Pavilion. Speakers in the learning programme’s workshops, JumpStart briefings and presentations represent a wide range of retailers and suppliers, from Mothercare, John Lewis and Asda to Barnsley Football Club, Amazon, Paypal and Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP.
“There’s no other event in Europe that offers such a wide gamut of skills and capabilities to sell in the multichannel era,” said Mark Pigou, show director, Internet Retailing Events.
IRX 2012 follows the success of the inaugural IRX 2011, which was attended by more than 2,600 visitors. Some 48% of those were etailers and 22% were multichannel retailers. More than 900 people took part in the learning programmes events, with many standing room only.
IRX 2012 is supported by title sponsor PayPal and silver sponsors Intershop, Ciao! from bing and LivePerson .
Pigou added: “IRX was praised for its high quality delegates, highly-targeted visitors, busy show floor and return on investment generation. In 2012 we intend to build on this by delivering an even better mix of marketing with technology, logistics with customer-facing design and mobile with in-store experience through our four conference tracks, free to attend workshops, learning sessions and demonstrations.”
Those four conference tracks include for the first time a dedicated M-Retailing track, alongside Fast Track, Enterprise, and Customer Experience programmes.
Fast Track, on day one, aims to inspire people looking to move into digital channels for the first time, and will focus on getting businesses up and running across all channels. The track is sponsored by Amazon Services Europe and speakers will come from companies including PayPal, Stinkyink.com and eSellerPro.
Also on day one is the Enterprise track, sponsored by Efficient Frontier. It is for large enterprises and others who are already selling online but want to expand. In this track, presenters from companies including Hitwise, De Vere, Shop Direct, and Shutl will look at how to boost customer bases and revenue.
On day two the Customer Service track, sponsored by Certona, will consider how to shape a rounded view of the customer’s experience and how best to use it. Design, interaction, usability, service management and customer touchpoints will be explored by presenters from companies including John Lewis, Asda, Certona, LCP Consulting and JD Sports.
Also on day two, the dedicated Mobile and Social Commerce track, sponsored by Reevoo, offers sessions for late adopters looking to jump to the front of the queue, as well as early adopters who want to integrate and extend their offering. Speakers from companies including Mothercare, Reevoo, whatusersdo.com and Virgin Business Media will cover industry trends, triggers and selling over mobile devices, using social media, apps, and more.
Also new in 2012 is the Innovation Pavilion, which will give the opportunity to showcase services and solutions that are less than a year old. Each presentation will be filmed and presented online after the Expo has finished.
For conference speaker profiles please visit http://www.internetretailingexpo.com/. More information on the Pavilion and free to attend workshops will be available soon. To express an interest in speaking, please contact emmah@internetretailing.net. For exhibition and sponsorship sales please contact info@internetretailing.net.
