With the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina creating a palpable background buzz at RetailVision earlier this month, the show organizers, vendors and retailers put together an impromptu fundraiser that garnered about a $28,000 donation to the Red Cross.
The Katrina relief effort was mounted during the closing festivities and award show on Sept. 8.
The other hurricane-related topic of conversation centered on where Spring Retailvision 2006 would be held. That show was slated to be held at the New Orleans Marriott April 3-6, but Pete Prentice, Gartner’s senior global director, said the show would have to move because of the disaster. The Gartner staff is working with Marriott to find another location and several potential replacement sites would be visited in the next few weeks. Prentice, at this stage, could not give a full rundown on all the cities being considered, however, he did say that San Antonio, Atlanta and Las Vegas are among those being looked at.
Atlanta and Las Vegas did not receive a particularly warm reception from attendees, Prentice said, but San Antonio was given a thumbs-up. A final decision will have to be made as soon as possible, he added, in order to ensure that the space is reserved for the event.
LaCie dominated the awards show taking home two statues for Best Vendor and Best Hardware.
Maxtor took home the award for Best Peripheral. Zyxel won for Best Accessory.
New Media Life grabbed the Best Digital Home award; Best Merchandising went to Dane Elec Memory; Network Magic won for Best Retail Strategy; Iogear for Best Presentation and Sling Media for Best New Product.
Two awards for the Latin American market were handed out with Logitech winning for Best Strategy and InFocus for Best Vendor.
