INTERNATIONAL. Over 100 children are set to benefit from life-changing cleft operations as the result of the inaugural Moodie Davitt Report Virtual Travel Retail Expo in October.

As reported, The Moodie Davitt Report is to fund a cleft operation through the Smile Train charity for every registered exhibitor at the pioneering event.

Smile Train has supported over 1.5 million cleft surgeries since 1999. Every five minutes Smile Train-supported cleft treatment helps a child in need. Some 200,000 babies are born every year with cleft lips and/or palates. US$250 funds the cost of the 45-minute cleft surgery that transforms the life of a child – and that of his or her family.

Imperial Brands & Team Blue latest partners to go virtual

Imperial Brands Global Duty Free & Export said the team is looking forward to meeting trade partners and connecting with the industry at the Virtual Travel Retail Expo.

Imperial said: “In times of crisis, we need innovation and unity to find solutions for challenges that we have never faced before. Imperial believes in the power of working together, which is why ‘Together as One’ is a guiding principle for our duty free business. Imperial looks forward to meeting trade partners and connect with industry at the first Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo and to discuss the road to recovery and the role our tobacco brands play.”

Industry consultancy Team Blue, another recent addition to the exhibitor line-up, said: “Team Blue is very excited and pleased to be participating in the Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo. We see terrific opportunity for our brand partners to broaden their distribution, to ‘virtually’ meet new global partners, reconnect with existing ones, to experience and learn at their own pace, and to have access to an unprecedented amount of information.

“That an event of this size and scope can spearhead the resurgence and renaissance of one of the world’s truly global industries – travel retail – is an added bonus.”

 

The Virtual Travel Retail Expo has so far attracted almost 80 exhibitors (several more are being announced this week) representing hundreds of brands. Numerous other agreements are close to finalisation and some major announcements will be made in coming days, including a world-first in travel retail.

The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie said: “We have worked with Smile Train many times over the years and consider it to be one of the most world’s most impactful, efficient and transparent charities. I know from visiting numerous Smile Train clinics that the transformation of a child’s life through cleft surgery is a wonder to behold. Thanks to the outstanding support of our many exhibitor partners, we are glad to be assisting Smile Train’s efforts.”

For all exhibition enquiries, please contact Martin@MoodieDavittReport.com. Registration is free to airport and retailer executives. Dubai Duty Free, the world’s biggest single airport travel retail operation, is offering registered retailers and airport executives the chance to win a ticket in its popular Millennium Millionaire (US$1 million) and Finest Surprise (luxury car) draws every Friday between now and the Expo. Two further draws will be held during the event. Click here to register and be in Friday’s draw.

Dubai Duty Free Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Colm McLoughlin presents a cheque for US$1.5 to Smile Train after the Miles for Smiles fun run organised by The Moodie Davitt Report in 2008

Images from Martin Moodie’s visit to the Smile Train-funded cleft surgery ward at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad in 2007

Underlining the Virtual Travel Retail Expo’s CSR and eco-friendly credentials (no travel involved, no shipping, no stand construction etc), The Moodie Davitt Report will also be making a substantial donation to The Trinity Forest Project – a tree-planting initiative we unveiled at The Trinity Forum in Doha last October.

One visitor = one tree. That is the simple formula being adopted by the event, an initiative announced to mark World Environment Day on 5 June.

The Trinity Forest Project, soft launched at The Trinity Forum in Doha last year, is powered by One Tree Planted, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation

The social contribution doesn’t stop there.  FILTR, our partner in curating the Virtual Expo, has pledged to donate 5% of all design fees from the event to ImpactHK – the 2020 nominated charity of Women in Travel Retail (WiTR). ImpactHK supports the homeless in Hong Kong with a particular focus on women and the aged. Women on the streets, as in many other cities, are particularly vulnerable and susceptible to abuse and attack.