The UK’s largest retail technology exhibition and conference, Retail Solutions, has made a successful move to London’s ExCeL centre from Birmingham. The move to ExCeL proved favourable, with the event experiencing an 18% increase in the actual number of visitors coming from London and the South East.

With EDS as principle partner, visitors to the event were able to see a range of technologies on offer, from exhibitors including Aldata, BT, IBM, K3, Manhattan Associates, Oracle, NCR, Red Prairie and Wincor Nixdorf. Top retailers attending the event included Asda, Ikea, John Lewis, Next, Somerfield, Tesco and Waitrose. Steve Hampson, Business Development Manager, K3 said: “A big chunk of our leads for the whole of the following year comes from comes from Retail Solutions. We got some significant sales that have resulted in revenue for us. We are a very big supporter of the show." The Retail Week IT Directors club lunch on the second day was a resounding success. The lunch, held exclusively for CIOs and IT Directors from the top 100 retail companies, and hosted by Industry Leader, Retail, Google UK and Peter Fitzgerald, attracted 23 IT Directors. Amongst these were Carphone Warehouse, River Island and Tesco.

Another of the attractions at Retail Solutions was the “Sustainable Retailing” feature in association with BT. Visitors to the purpose-built showpiece area were able to see demonstrations from BT and its partners, who were on hand to answer questions on Sustainable Retailing and offer advice on the topic. A first at this year’s event was the Microsoft Pavilion, in association with Retail Speak, which provided the industry with powerful integrated solutions to enable improved shopping, a more effective staff and enhanced store operations.

The Retail Week conference programme, comprising the Multichannel Retail Forum, Retail Technology Forum and Supply Chain Conference, which ran alongside the exhibition, proved to be a huge draw. It featured innovative case studies delivered by Argos, Currys, Harvey Nichols, House of Fraser, Somerfield, Spar, Tesco and Woolworths. Key industry speakers included Jonathon Brown, Director of Multi Channel, B&Q; Nick Fox, Logistics and Operations Director, WDT; and Peter Schofield, IT Service & Operations Director, The Carphone Warehouse. The European Retail Solutions Awards, sponsored by Torex, took place on the 25th of June at the Old Billingsgate Market near ExCeL. Attracting more than 650 retail IT executives and vendors from the retail, leisure and food services from across Europe, this year’s winners are listed at www.retailsolutions2008.com.
 

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