[February 03, 2014]

Retailers Invited to "Ignite the Customer Experience" at University of Arizona Conference

The Global Retailing Conference of the University of Arizona's Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing today announced its 2014 lineup of presenters. With a theme of "Ignite the Customer Experience," discussions will focus on how retailers engage customers in their brands and enhance the shopping experience through innovation, technology and techniques for meeting evolving consumer preferences. Among the speakers are senior executives from retailing, consumer brand and technology companies such as Macy's, Bobbi Brown, GoDaddy, NIKE, Blue Nile, Intel (News - Alert), Fender Guitars, The Home Depot and Whole Foods.

The conference will be held April 10-11 at Loews Ventana Canyon in Tucson, AZ. The annual event serves as a forum and think tank for emerging ideas in a setting that fuses business and academia.

Speakers for the event include:

• Terry J. Lundgren, Chairman, President & CEO, Macy's, Inc.
• Bobbi Brown, Founder and CCO, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics
• Ken Langone, Founder & CEO, Invemed Associates, and Co-Founder, The Home Depot
• Walter Robb, Co-CEO, Whole Foods
• Jeanne Jackson, President-Product and Merchandising, NIKE
• Brian David Johnson, Futurist, Intel Corporation
• Harvey Kanter, President & CEO, Blue Nile
• Michael P. Kercheval, President & CEO, International Council of Shopping Centers
• Blake Irving (News - Alert), CEO and Board Director, GoDaddy
• Tom Litchford, Vice President-Retail Strategies, National Retail Federation
• Richard McDonald, Senior Vice President-Global Marketing, Fender Guitrs
• Nadia Shouraboura, Founder & CEO, Hointer
• Roman Tsunder, CEO, PTTOW!
• Ashlee Aldridge, SVP, CIO & Chief Integration Officer, Golfsmith International
• Rob Garf, Vice President-Industry Strategy, Demandware
• Greg Girard, Program Director-Merchandise Strategies, IDC (News - Alert) Retail Insights.

"For 18 years, the University of Arizona's Global Retailing Conference has been a forum to discuss new and dynamic directions of an industry that leads consumer trends. The pace of change has never been as rapid as it is today. Leading retailers and brand marketers are looking differently at how they attract and retain customers, and how they develop the talent needed for the future," said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Macy's, Inc., who will deliver opening remarks. "This year's conference will examine how the shopping experience is evolving, as told by some of the industry's most visionary thinkers. And significantly, this will be a forum that includes interaction with high-potential retailing students and faculty who have already begun to frame the insights that will carry our companies forward."

Registrations for a limited number of attendees are currently being accepted.

The GRC is presented through the support of sponsors that include Macy's, SAP (News - Alert), Airwatch, AT&T, Demandware, Supima Cotton, 360pi, MasterCard, Walgreens, Predictix, Kenneth Mink, Avnet, Dick's Sporting Goods, Hudson River Group, Intel, JC Penney, Yahoo!, Home Depot, PetSmart, RetailNext, Threadstone, Atmosol, Reflexis, Acento, and Defero.

For more information on attending the event, visit www.globalretailingconference.org and follow to the registration page. Or email Martha Van Gelder, director of the Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing, at [email protected].

The Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing is part of the University of Arizona's John and Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences. It brings together the resources and expertise of academia and the retail industry, with a shared goal of developing strong future retail professionals. The school's Retailing and Consumer Sciences program undergraduate degree is considered one of the top retail business programs in the country. About 500 students currently are enrolled in classes.

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