69th International Retail Summit

Don’t worry, retail won't be disappearing any time soon. Retailers, however, will – or at least their role will change. The ecosystem of consumption is being reconfigured. Anyone who continues to think in formats and channels will lose customers, because in their always-on world, only one thing counts: the right product in the right place at the right time. This means that the core retail skills are changing.

The new needs of consumers are fragmenting retail: the time of the one-size-fits-all solution is over. It is only collaborations and platforms that will enable the hyper-personalised offers of the future, and this requires an entrepreneurial rather than a managerial attitude. The retail world of tomorrow belongs to those who seize the initiative.

The 69th International Retail Summit at GDI will tackle the following questions:

How can we create customer relationships in an era of total digital transparency?
What do fragmentation, niches and small volumes mean for traditional retail?
What will brands provide in the new ecosystem?
Location, location, geolocation – what role does physical location play?
Which technology trends are actually relevant?
... and, once again: what exactly will we need retail for in the future?

2000 (instead of CHF 2500) for early birds until 31 March!

Programme

The programme will be published shortly.

Speakers

(The list of speakers is continuously updated.)

Götz Rehn

Founder and General Manager of Alnatura, the successful German provider of organic food and textiles. Since its foundation in 1984 the enterprise has enjoyed constant sales growth. In addition to his work as an entrepreneur, Götz Rehn has been an honorary professor at the Alanus University in Alfter near Bonn since 2007, where he heads the Institute for Social Organics.

Mette Lykke

Mette Lykke is an accomplished entrepreneur on a mission to fight food waste as CEO of Too Good To Go. Available in nine countries in Europe, Too Good To Go is helping more than 10,000 restaurants, supermarkets and other food retailers sell the surplus food they would otherwise have thrown away at the end of business. The vision is to create a strong movement to get all of us to waste less food.

Olaf Koch

Chairman of the Management Board of Metro. Olaf Koch has been with Metro since 2009 when he was appointed a member of the Management Board serving as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Metro, Koch was Managing Director Operations at the Private Equity company Permira, which he joined after a tenure at Daimler Chrysler AG, having occupied a number of managerial positions.

An Xiao Mina

Technologist, writer and artist. Mina is an affiliate researcher at the Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Mina is also co-founder of The Civic Beat, a global research collective focused on the creative side of civic technology, and author of „Memes to Movements: How the World’s Most Viral Media is Changing Social Protest and Power“.

Sarah-Diane Eck

CEO and co-founder of Sandblock, a French blockchain startup that wants to revolutionise customer engagement through gamification. Eck is also the Vice President of France Digitale, a general interest association that brings together digital entrepreneurs and investors. The French entrepreneur holds a triple degree in Business & Management (HEC Paris), Engineering (AgroParisTech) and Corporate Law & International Tax (Panthéon-Assas).

Rainer Deutschmann

Head of Corporate Logistics Transportation Division of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives. From 2004 to 2016, Deutschmann was Director Supply Chain Management and a member of the Manor Executive Board. Prior to that, he was head of the central datacentre of the Swiss Financial Centre and, as head of the IT Services division, a member of the management board of Telekurs Services AG.

Petra Schäfer

Managing Director of Globus SB-Warenhaus Holding. In this position, Schäfer is responsible for purchasing/category management, home brands and the sales region "Mitte". Previously, the pharmacist was Managing Director of dm Drogerie Markt until 2015, where she was responsible for marketing and procurement.

Daniel Schunk

Daniel Schunk is a professor of public and behavioral economics at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany) and a permanent research fellow at the University of Zurich (Switzerland). His research focuses on experimental and behavioral economics, on economics of education and on public policy. Beyond his work in economics, he maintains active collaborations with neuroscientists, psychologists, geneticists as well as bioinformaticians.

David Bosshart

Dr. David Bosshart is CEO of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute for Economic and Social Studies. Dr. David Bosshart holds a PhD in philosophy, is the author of numerous international publications and sought-after speaker worldwide. His work focuses on the future of consumption, societal transformation, digitisation (human-machine), management and culture, globalisation and political philosophy.

Moderator

Reto Brennwald

TV journalist, filmmaker and media trainer. From 2008 to 2011 Reto Brennwald presented SRF's politics programme "Arena". Prior to that, he had been moderator of the "Rundschau" for seven years. Reto Brennwald has been active in the electronic media sphere for 25 years. In 2015 he founded the Talk&Film GmbH for communication, moderation and film production.

Fees

2 days, 1 person:

Full price: CHF 2500

20 % early-bird discount until 31 March 2019: CHF 2000

10 % early-bird discount until 31 May 2019: CHF 2250

2 days, 2 or more persons:

Full price: CHF 2125 / person

can be cumulated with:

20 % early-bird discount until 31 March 2019: CHF 1625

10 % early-bird discount until 31 May 2019: CHF 1875

1 day, per person:

Full price: CHF 1500

20 % early-bird discount until 31 March 2019: CHF 1200

10 % early-bird discount until 31 May 2019: CHF 1350

Payment in advance. Reduced fees apply when more than one participant from the same company registers at the same time. Any subsequent participant registered later will be invoiced separately. The conference fee includes all food and beverages (and VAT). Participants registering less than two weeks before the event can pay by credit card only.

Information

Language
German / English (simultaneous interpretation)

Changes to the programme
The programme is subject to change. If an event does not take place, fees will be refunded. Further claims are ruled out.

Cancellation
If you are unable to attend, please let us have your cancellation in writing. The fee will be reimbursed on cancellation thirty or more days before the event. After this term and until five full working days prior to the event we will charge 75% of the fee. In the event of later cancellations we will charge the full participation fee. Substitute participants welcome.

Hotel reservation
To benefit from special rates, please use the following email adresses and refer to the code: IHT2019
Hotel Sedartis, Thalwil: info@sedartis.ch
Hotel Belvoir, Ruschlikon: info@hotel-belvoir.ch
Hotel Ibis, Adliswil: welcome@ibiszurich.ch

Transport
There will be a free shuttle bus service between the GDI and the Hotel Sedartis / Thalwil train station.

Terms and Conditions (PDF)

Venue