Conference Conundrum

Attending business conferences is a fine balance. On one hand, it is essential to remain visible and accessible within the markets you operate in. On the other hand, there still must be time between conferences to actually do your day job and fulfil the work that (hopefully!) results from your efforts.

This week is a prime example, situated within a French & Spanish sandwich involving Mapic, in Cannes and the ICSC Retail Strategy & Trends Conference in Madrid. Both are very different events and important in different ways. For us, Mapic last week was a great chance to meet with new and existing clients as well as look at some exciting upcoming projects which we hope to be involved in. It also acts as a measuring gauge for us on our progress over the years and it was amazing to have overflowing meeting agendas for the whole conference.

It was incredible to see the conference evolve this year and it was noticeable that many organisations have upgraded their stands with larger or more innovative designs. It seems that the Nordic region led the way on this with an impressive new offering from IKEA Centres and a beautifully designed Pavilion by the Nordic Council of Shopping Centres which represented the region perfectly.

The ICSC Strategy & Trends conference will take place next week and I would recommend anyone not planning to attend, to take a look at the great programme of speakers before making your decision.

This event also includes NextGen Live which involves 3 key speakers, speaking live to a physical audience in Madrid but also transmitted around the world via live web link. If you can’t make it to Madrid, be sure to tune in online early on Friday morning! As a sponsor of the NextGen platform in Europe, we are looking forward to hearing some great insights from some excellent guest speakers!

With less than a month until Christmas day, I will personally be contributing to our industry by buying all my Christmas presents in shopping centres. If you find yourself doing the same in London, we invite you to come and visit us whilst you are here. Wherever you are in the world we wish you a successful end to 2016 and a relaxing festive period with friends and family.

Tim Forbes, Head of International Shopping Centers, Foundation Recruitment