Opening Remarks
SPECIAL ADDRESS: Hainan IEDB is the proud sponsor of the Hainan Discovery zone at the Virtual Travel Retail Expo.
Hainan IEDB is an agency established by the Hainan government in April 2019, whose mission is to build Hainan as a Free Trade Port in all respects with distinctive Chinese features. Hainan’s burgeoning offshore duty free sector forms a key element of that development programme.
In May IEDB organised the hugely successful China International Consumer Products Expo (Hainan Expo), which saw 1,505 companies attend with 2,628 brands on show. The event drew over 240,000 visitors including 30,000 buyers. The event will be repeated annually with 2022 dates to be revealed at the Virtual Travel Retail Expo.
LEAD: Keynote Interview
LEAD: Keynote Interview
INSPIRE: Michael Schriver is one of the most knowledgeable and respected voices in Asia’s luxury retail sector and as a former President Worldwide Store Operations and Chief Operating Officer at DFS Group, an expert on travel retail. Michael holds strong views on how the channel must develop in the future, including a rethink of many attitudes and practices.
SPECIAL SESSION: Envisioning The Airport Experience Of The Future – A Consumer-Centric View
Airport Dimensions is a global leader in delivering airport lounges and traveller experiences. With 30 years’ experience in business strategy, development and management, Mignot Buckingham has played a significant part in the growth of Airport Dimensions’ parent company Collinson for over 20 years.
This session, leveraging consumer research especially commissioned for the Virtual Travel Expo, will focus on understanding traveller needs, demands and aspirations for the airport experience of the future.
LEAD: Keynote Interview
THE QDF FACTOR: The Finalists Revealed
Who will win The QDF Factor 2021 and receive a complimentary six-month listing within the expansion at Hamad International Airport when it is opens in 2022, plus a six-month US$50k advertising campaign with The Moodie Davitt Report?
SPECIAL SESSION: This special session continues APTRA’s acclaimed APAC Dialogue series that has run so successfully throughout early 2021. Hosted by APTRA President Sunil Tuli, it will feature top-name speakers drawn from across the industry spectrum.
LEAD: Keynote Interview
Colm McLoughlin is the modern-stay statesman of the global travel retail industry. Since starting his career with Aer Rianta at the birthplace of duty free, Shannon Airport in Ireland, he has become synonymous with the Dubai Duty Free story, which he initiated in 1983. For years, Dubai Duty Free has been the world’s largest single retailer airport duty free location and while the pandemic has hit revenue hard, so is a recovery well under way. Colm will address the lessons of crisis and how the future looks for this world-leading travel retailer.
INSPIRE: Women in Travel Thrive (WITT) was established by a network of like-minded friends and associates in the travel industry who became deeply concerned about the disproportionate impact the pandemic was having on women and their careers. WITT was created to help reduce and redress that impact.
TRANSFORM 1: A key follow-up to the Trinity White Paper written by Mauro and Jack and published earlier this year in association with The Moodie Davitt Report. Among other findings, it said that travel retailers needed to embrace digitalisation (CRM, data-enabled commercial decision making, omnichannel focus etc.) to a much greater degree, all customised for travel retail)
Marc Andre will double click on that and see what it means in practice and how such a vision can be achieved. He will cite the example on how one leading global domestic retailer did it.
LEAD: Keynote Interview
AWARDS: The Moodies, the eighth edition of the prestigious annual awards that spotlight digital, social media and marketing excellence across the airport and travel sectors.
The Moodies Awards this year will again embrace the entire travel journey from booking through to end destination, including: travel agents; online booking sites; airlines; airports (including but not confined to shopping and dining); airport advertising; rail stations; train operators; ferries and cruiselines; hotels; tourist destinations and bureaus; and other travel-related operations.
LEAD: How has the UK’s leading airport evolved its consumer offer post-pandemic and post-Brexit. One of the airport world’s most astute commercial executives will consider the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
TRANSFORM: Cashierless stores are a scalable reality in today’s travel retail sector with Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ technology, among others to the fore. In this session, Retail Cities will present some future retail scenarios using examples including those provided by Trigo, a cashierless store solution provider; the StoreLab, a virtual reality retail solution provider; Long time and Brain Propaganda, a neuromarketing science team. The core question we all need to answer: How do we keep humanity at the heart of travel retail?
In June Zürich Airport and Highsnobiety today announced the launch of Highsnobiety GATEZERO, described as a first of its kind luxury retail and multi-channel hub designed to bring back the excitement of travel retail.
“We firmly believe that digital touchpoints outside the airport are key to speak to a new generation of travellers,” Fischer says. “For them, the shopping journey starts with digital content, not after the security check. Our joint goal is to make consumers show up at the airport half an hour earlier, because they know there is an exciting retail experience waiting for them that they can’t find anywhere else.”
Special Session
INSPIRE
TRANSFORM: Imex Pan Pacific (IPP) has emerged as one of Asia’s most visionary corporations, with interests spanning luxury, retail, airport management, mixed-use leisure developments, food & beverage, technology, media and more.
TRANSFORM: International food and drink giant Nestlé is committed towards supporting the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Its long-term ambitions include assisting 50 million children to lead healthier lives; helping to improve 30 million livelihoods in communities directly connected to its business activities; and striving for zero environmental impact in our operations. Stewart will discuss how these ambitions are being translated in relating in the company’s work on behalf of individuals and families; supply and other communities; and the planet.
LEAD: Keynote Retailer Interview
SPECIAL SESSION: The annual Airport Food & Beverage (FAB) Conference & Awards has been a highlight of the industry calendar since 2011 but had to be suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year FAB makes a welcome, albeit virtual return, with a timely one day session focused on how the sector has been reshaped by the pandemic and how it needs to respond in a changed world.
The day will culminate in powerful fashion with the first-ever FAB Superstars Awards, shining the spotlight on the thousands of front-of-house and behind the scenes heroes and heroines who have helped keep the travel food & beverage industry going throughout the pandemic.
AWARDS: The first virtual edition of the FAB Awards for employees in the food & beverage sector in the airport community and other travel-related sectors. These awards will shine the spotlight on the thousands of front-of-house and behind the scenes heroes and heroines who have helped keep the food & beverage community within our industry going throughout the pandemic.
AWARDS: The first edition of an annual awards for travel retail employees across airport, airline, downtown store and cruise sectors reaches its crescendo. The awards have placed an overdue spotlight on those frontline and behind the scenes heroes and heroines who have helped kept our industry going throughout the most profound and sustained crisis it has ever faced.
THE QDF FACTOR – The Big Reveal
The waiting is over as Qatar Duty Free Vice President Operations Thabet Musleh reveals the winner of The QDF Factor 2021, who will receive a complimentary six-month listing within the expansion at Hamad International Airport when it is opens in 2022, plus a six-month US$50k advertising campaign with The Moodie Davitt Report? Big runners-up prizes will also be revealed.
*Speaker line-up subject to change