An impressive roll-call of shopping centre professionals and business leaders from all over the world, including a former Prime Minister and a Nobel prize winner, have agreed to speak at the forthcoming ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) World Summit and 30th European Annual Conference in Istanbul (20-22 April 2005).
With eight months still to go, prominent retail real estate industry experts from France, USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom have already committed to present at the Summit, which will take the theme Shopping Centres: the modern marketplace to explore their role as a catalyst for economic and social development in national economies around the world.
The conference programme will explore many of the important global trends impacting on the shopping centre industry, including: Shopping Centres as a factor of socio-economic development, Consumer behaviour, Challenges and Opportunities in Graying and Emerging Markets, Building Designs that Excite and Endure, Public-Private Partnerships, Creating and Selling Experiences, Global Retailers and Capital Flows.
The extensive Summit programme boasts a number of highlights:
- Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) co-founder and Nobel prize winner, Dr Bernard Kouchner, will open the summit with a presentation on his humanitarian work in Africa, Asia and Latin America and his experience of serving in troubled areas throughout the world.
- Research into the role of the shopping centre as a cornerstone of socio-economic development is being prepared by Michael Niemira, chief economist and director of research at ICSC.
- The mall as 'consumption complex' will be explored by Anthony Stokan of Anthony Russell Inc retail marketing consultancy (Canada).
- Ronnie Chan, chairman, Hang Lung Properties (Hong Kong), a subsidiary of the Hang Lung Group of which he is also chairman, will present on the challenges and opportunities in emerging markets drawing on his experience of the retail property market in Asia.
- The former prime minister of Canada, Jean Chrétien, will discuss his views on globalisation, the world economy, politics and legal issues.
- HE Mohammad Al Abbar of Emaar Properties (UAE) and Liu Thai Ker of RSP Architects, Planners and Engineers (Singapore) will discuss how to create a destination which includes shopping centres.
The programme will also incorporate a global mayoral summit, the European Shopping Centre Awards and the Solal Marketing Awards, round table discussions and a visit to the Kapali Carsi (Grand Bazaar) arguably the world´s largest and oldest covered shopping centre.
The event, which takes place only once every five years, is expected to attract senior level real estate executives from all over the world, together with other professionals involved in the retail property sector such as financiers, marketers, retailers and lawyers, and the organisers are looking to welcome over 1,000 delegates to Istanbul.
The ICSC World Summit, which incorporates the annual conferences of the ICSC European and Asia-Pacific Conferences as well as those of the Turkish and Middle East councils, takes place at the Çiragan Palace, Istanbul, Turkey 20th-22nd April 2005.
Source: ICSC
