Spring Fair, which takes place from 6th – 9th February 2022 at NEC Birmingham, has announced a line-up of speakers for its Inspiring Retail Stage programme.
The schedule of live content will cover a dedicated theme relating to this season’s Empowering Change manifesto on each day of the show, kicking off with ‘The trends that will shape consumer behaviour in 2022’ on Sunday 6th February. Highlights include the opening session at 11.30am with Simon Moriarty, head of Trends at Mintel. Simon is set to discuss the trends, talking through the big changes that will impact the world we all live and work in.
Day one closes with a celebration of UK retail and the businesses that are making a difference. In partnership with Modern Retail, Spring Fair is hosting the Good Retail Awards for the third year, recognising and sharing successes in all areas of retail. The winners will be announced from 5pm.
Monday is all about Trends, Sustainability and Innovation in Retail, with retailers and global organisations sharing the highs and lows of their journeys. At 11.30am, Samual Cliff, member director at SEDEX, discusses ‘How do you know who you are doing business with?’ Sustainability isn’t just all about recycling and material management. The pandemic has shown that consumers care deeply about the people in the supply chain as much as the materials those products are made out of. Join Samual as he runs through some simple things to look for when you start to do business with a new supplier, and how to ensure you know who you are doing business with is exactly who you think you are doing business with.
The theme for Tuesday 8th is Changing Mindsets. At midday, following an insightful trend presentation from Kate Usher at TrendBible at 10.30am on the key Gifting trends impacting consumers, Charley Crocker from The Pop Up Agents talks through the local authority-led scheme Pop-Up Horsham, which has acted as a showcase for local businesses and products, and explains how this can be a valuable tool for local authorities and retailers alike.
The ‘Dare To Change’ session at 2pm is hosted by Alan O’Neill, managing director of Kara and the man who has helped Selfridges, Fenwick, Primark and Harrods thrive. In this session, Alan will share his experiences of supporting iconic brands like Ann Summers, Fenwick, Harrod’s, Primark and Selfridges to grow their physical store sales. Attendees will leave this session equipped with practical ideas and tactics to help them embrace change.
On the final day, Spring Fair collaborates with its wellbeing and charity partner The Retail Trust to deliver a meaningful and useful business workshop at 11am, ‘Supporting your people in order to thrive’, while ‘A Buyer’s Life’ at 12pm shares top tips for both buyers and suppliers.
The latest Inspiring Retail Stage programme, which details more presentation and panel discussions in addition to those listed above, can be viewed here. Registered visitors can also download the dedicated Spring Fair App for easy access to the schedule and to add sessions to their calendar.
