Czech retail at the door of maturity: difficult market situation requires thinking and acting in connections

The annual conference Retail Summit, which will take place on 31st January and 1st February 2012 in Clarion Congress Hotel in Prague, is bringing in its 18th year a parallel with “maturity” of the Czech retail and its ambition is to inspire retailers and suppliers to successful mastering the difficult market situation. Maturity means also greater responsibility, respect towards partners and interest in what is going on around us. Therefore in the summit program there will be not only key retailers, but also their suppliers, analysts representing opinions of shoppers, macroeconomic experts, politicians and renowned businessmen from sectors, which can be inspirational for retail in many aspects.

Retail Summit is preparing its 18th year and together with Czech retail it enters to the phase of maturity. The parallel between summit history and Czech modern retail is very strong – this most important expert and social event was born in a moment when retail, after a short period of atomization, started to concentrate again, there were founded first big retail companies and a huge wave of building large-scale stores on the green fields started. After a relatively long and almost easygoing childhood, marked with growth of consumer demand and its predominance over the offer of new attractive stores, a “difficult pubescence” came.

Retail Summit and the whole Czech retail with it is now entering into the door of maturity at a time which is not really fitting for wild celebrations. Quite the reverse – after a short revival the retail market starts to fight again with decrease of demand. In the horizon there is another challenge in a form of expected negative impacts of large reforms, which will result in further reduction in available buying power and pressure on prices growth. Further development on the highly saturated and also in other ways “adult” demanding market will not be easy. The two previous summits have already indicated the way, they presented many anti-crisis solutions and confirmed that the best defense strategy is the attack – specifically this means never-ending activities on the field of innovations. Retail Summit 2012 will follow this program line and will bring inspiration for successful mastering the difficult market situation. The main stress will be laid on the fact that it is necessary to think and act in connections. Because maturity means also responsibility, respect towards partners and interest in what is going on around us. Therefore in the summit program there will be not only key retailers, but also their suppliers, analysts representing opinions of shoppers, macroeconomic experts, politicians and renowned businessmen from sectors, which can be inspirational for retail in many aspects. In the opening session moderated by Jakub Železný there is promised participation of analyst from ČSOB – Poštovní spořitelna, Jan Bureš, businessman and initiator of anti-corruption fund, Karel Janeček, forecaster and member of NERV, Michal Mejstřík, or CEO of Agrofert Holding, Andrej Babiš.

Doubtlessly a good news is that many other European markets have already successfully mastered the maturity and so we can efficiently learn from their triumphs and failures. Presentation of key note speaker Dr. David Bosshart, CEO of Swiss institute GDI, will be very instructive in this aspect as he will speak about Future of Success and will recommend what to do and what to avoid at the mature market.

Retail Summit 2012 will bring also many other presentations and discussion sessions which all should help us to enter the age of maturity in the best shape. An integral part of the process of maturity is also change of the summit venue, which will take place for the first time in the conference center of Clarion Congress Hotel in Prague on 31st January and 1st February 2012. Those who plan their time and resources responsibly and in long-term can use very advantageous offer of registration for “Very Early Birds”.

 

On-line registration: www.retail21.cz/summit

For more information about summit and possibilities of cooperation on its program contact:

Barbora Krásná, Partner, Blue Events

 e-mail: barbora.krasna@blueevents.eu

 

 

Contact for media:

Zuzana Mračková, Client Service Manager, Blue Events

Tel.: +420 222 749 841, e-mail: zuzana.mrackova@blueevents.eu

 

Contact for those who are interested in partnership and promotion:

Petra Veselovská, Account Manager, Blue Events

Tel.: +420 737 250 356, e-mail: petra.veselovska@blueevents.eu