RetailVision Fall ’99, scheduled for September 14-17 in Chicago, is offering an event-packed agenda, including face-to-face private boardroom appointments, What’s In Store presentations, world premieres and channel announcements, as well as the PowerView Sessions and RetailVision University.
Buyers from more than 250 retailers and e-tailers will be going to Chicago to see the almost 300 vendors who are featuring a wide array of new computer technology and product innovations in the Sheraton Hotel and Towers at RetailVision, which is sponsored by Ingram Micro, Tech Data and TWICE.
“RetailVision puts vendors in front of the industry’s most influential buyers,” said Nancy Splaine, VP/general manager of VisionEvents, a Gartner Group, and sponsor of the twice-a-year event. “This year e-tailers are more of a presence. The kickoff PowerViews on Tuesday night, for example, feature quite a few e-tailers.”
These PowerView sessions, scheduled for Tuesday, September 14 from 5-7 p.m., give retailers the opportunity to address vendors. The slate of speakers includes Bob Gundersen of Best Buy, Dominic Constantino of Beyond.com, Roland Serna of Buy.com, Tom Reed of CompUSA, Iang Jeon of Compusanet.com, Larry Hall of CDW, Bryan O’Connell of Office Depot, Kevin Dempsey of Staples, and Eric Cherna of Value America.
The keynote address by 3Com’s Rich Redelfs, VP/ general manager of the Wireless & Home Connectivity Division, officially kicks off Fall ’99 RetailVision. It is scheduled for Wednesday morning at 7:45 a.m., and Redelfs’ presentation is entitled “The More Connected Lifestyle.”
One of the highlights of the four-day event will be the World Premiere partner announcement by Jerre Stead, chairman/CEO of Ingram Micro. He is expected to outline the company’s e-commerce strategy and its role in the new and changing retail landscape.
Dragon Systems, MGI and Philips have also scheduled world premieres, with Dragon and Philips debuting speech-recognition software, while MGI Software is expected to make a channel announcement.
RetailVision University, a seminar program that takes place from 9 a.m. until noon each morning, will feature speakers such as Karen Settle of Keystone Marketing, Bob Johnson of Tech Data, and Van Baker of Dataquest. Also on the agenda are Roger Lanctot of PC Data, Mark Snowden of Dataquest, Lonnie Ramos of Ingram Micro, David Dickinson of Griggs-Anderson/Gartner Consulting, Diane Lowe Archer of Frontline Now, Todd Thibodeaux of CEMA, and Michael Flink of Levin Consulting.
Another highlight of RetailVision is the What’s In Store exhibition where vendors show off their products in a merchandising-style setting. These are open from 2-5 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and from 2-4 p.m. on Friday.
The Best Of RetailVision awards and Retail Star Club awards will be presented at the gala dinner sponsored by 3Com, scheduled for Thursday night.
