Canadian Retailer - Store 2015 - 4

PUBLISHER'S DESK

DISRUPTION
AND SUCCESS
FROM the very beginning, there

was something just a bit different
about our annual STORE Conference this year. Kicked off by RCC
Board of Director Chair and Vice
Chair, Anna Martini from Group
Dynamite and Michael Medline
from Canadian Tire, our speakers,
sponsors and exhibitors all embraced our 2015 theme of "Harnessing Disruption".
This was also a year of several firsts, including the RCC ReBoot
Challenge/Disruption Alley, (see page 52 for a profile of our winner, Workjam) an opportunity for RCC to profile some of the top new
Canadian solution providers for the retail industry.
For those who took the time out of their busy schedules to attend,
we truly hope you found the content-both on the main stage, in our
concurrent sessions and in our Thought Leadership Theatre, to be
of both immediate and long term value. We received great feedback
from our attendee surveys, and as always heard opportunities for
improvement. For those of you who were unable to make it this year,
we've included in this edition of Canadian Retailer a handy summary
of the takeaways (page 26) and keep an eye on our social media pages
and weekly eNews email for video snapshots with insights from our
fantastic roster of speakers. As a special feature, be sure and have a
look at Day 2 Keynote speaker PWC's Ted Salter's article on customer
engagement and the shopping journey (page 12)-a good continuation of his on-stage session with leaders from PetSmart and Loblaw.
And speaking of a fantastic roster of leaders, check out our feature
article, the KPMG roundtable hosted by STORE presenter and global
retail thought leader Willy Kruh along with KPMG partner Andrea
Baldwin. Featuring four of Canada's top retail business leaders, it is
a full and frank discussion about the state of the economy and its impact on retail, cyber-security and omni-channel merchandising.
We hope you have enjoyed/will enjoy what is left of the summer of
2015! Here at RCC the team is already hard at work organizing our
outstanding fall roster of events including our Loss Prevention, Retail
West and DTL Conferences, plus many other interesting and engaging
opportunities providing both thought leadership and networking.
Hope to see you in the fall-best of luck with the Back-to-School
shopping season!
Sincerely,

Diane J. Brisebois
President and CEO
Retail Council of Canada
4|

CANADIAN RETAILER | STORE 2015

STOR E 2015 | VOLUME 25 ISSUE 4

publisher

Diane J. Brisebois
A s s o c i at e P u b l i s h e r

Michael LeBlanc

editor-in- chief

Sean C. Tarry
(416) 922-6678, ext. 286
starry@retailcouncil.org
art direction

Scope Media
www.scopemedia.ca
contributors

Talbot Boggs, Stuart Foxman, Krista
Friesen, Andrew Hind, Willy Kruh, Alan
Lipson, David McPherson, Robert Price,
Ted Salter
d i r e c t o r o f p u b l i c at i o n s

Angela Caroyannis
acaroyannis@naylor.com
project manager

Kim Davies
kdavies@naylor.com
sales manager

Bill McDougall
bmcdougall@naylor.com
editorial office

1881 Yonge Street, Suite 800
Toronto, Ontario M4S 3C4
Phone: (416) 922-6678 | Fax: (416) 922-8011
www.retailcouncil.org
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www.naylor.com
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