Retail Forum

Organized by investor and consultant to retailers Richard Jaffe, ICR, and ShopTalk in conjunction with the Deming Center, the August 2017 forum was titled: "Disruption to the Retail Sector and Capitalizing on the Opportunities that this Presents." The following sessions and speakers were featured:

• Dave Bassuk, Alexa Driansky, and Matt Shapiro, Alix Partners
  Strategies for Dealing with Retail Disruption: Offense and Defense
• Mike Blandina, Westfield Retail Solutions
  Bringing 21st Century Innovations to Modern Brands, Retailers and Iconic Venues
• John Howard, Irving Place Capital, and Ben Sun, Primary Venture Partners
  Two Views of Retail Investing
• Pano Anthos, XRC Labs
  Growing and Supporting the Future Innovators and Disruptors of Retailers
• Jennie Baik, Orchard Mile
  The Personalized, Electronic Fashion Mall
• JB Osborne, Red Antler
  Building Brands and Companies in the 21st Century
• Sharat Alankar, Walmart's Store No, 8
  Incubator for the Future of Commerce
• Kinshuk Jerath, Associate Professor of Business, and Mark Cohen, Adjunct Professor and Director of Retail Studies, Columbia Business School
  Outlook on Retail: A “no holds barred” look at our current situation and look at what the future of retail might be built upon

The 2016 workshop on The Rapidly Changing Form of Retail was held on August 9 and covered the following topics:

• Antonio Nieves, Chief Financial Officer, Bonobos
  Omnichannel Convergence  
• Cassie Lancelloti-Young, EVP of Customer Success, Salithru; David Spitz, CEO, Channel Advisor Corporation; Mark Gally, CEO, Zaius Inc. 
  Omnichannel Software Best Practices 
• Professor Omar Besbes, Decision, Risk, and Operations, Columbia Business School
  Business Analytics   
• Michael Berman, EVP and CFO, General Growth Properties, Inc.; David Jaimeson, EVP Asset Management and Operations, Kimco Realty Corp.; Faith Hope Consolo, Chairman, The Retail Group, Douglas Elliman Real Estate
  Changing Evolution of the Mall and Retail Real Estate 
• Michael Dart, Private Equity Partner, A.T. Kearney
  The New Rules of Retail 
• Mark Cohen, Director of Retail Studies, Columbia Business School
  Distressed Retailing 

The 2015 workshop took place on August 11, and covered the following topics:

• Ted Gayer, Director of the Economic Studies Program, Brookings Institution, and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, Treasury Deptartment
  An Outlook on Wages & The Economy
• Herb Heiserman & Jeff Pollak, Architects, Streetsense
  The Next Wave on the Retail Store Experience -
• Arun Sundararajan, Authority on Collaborative Consumption, NYU Stern Business School  
  The Millennial & Evolving Consumer: “The Sharing Economy - Implications for Consumption and Retail”
• Amy Hall, Director of Social Consciousness, Eileen Fisher, and Brett Schulman, CEO, Cava Grill
  “Consumers Care How Things Are Made”
• Rob Whitman, Retail Industry Team, and Lynn Kappelman, Attorney, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  Labor Law for Retailers in the Age of Rising Minimum Wage 

The 2014 edition took place on August 6 and we explored issues surrounding the retail industry: housing’s impact on the economy – during and since the crisis, e-commerce and omni-channel trends, digital marketing strategies and optimizing store labor investments.

• Ted Gayer, Director of the Economic Studies, Brooking Institution, and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy,  Treasury Department
  Economy & Housing 
• Medini Singh, Senior Lecturer in Discipline in Business, Decision, Risk and Operations, Columbia Business School,​​​​
  Retail Strategy (Hedging Demand & Inventory Risks: Lessons from Benetton, Zara & Gustin Jeans) 
• Mike Smith, COO, stitchfix.com, and former COO, Walmart.com
  The Next Web Consumer Experience 
• David Bell, Professor of Marketing, Wharton School
  Omni-Channel Retail 
• Shawn DuBravac, Chief Economist, Consumer Electronics Association
  Electronics Product Cycles & Trends 
• Zeynep Ton, Professor, MIT/Sloan School of Management
  Retail’s Labor Model Conundrum & Supply Chain Disconnect 

In August 2013, the Deming Center hosted panel discussions on "How Washington's Decisions Will Affect Consumer Confidence & Housing," "Distribution and Fulfillment for Omni-Channel," and "History and Future of Outlet Malls."

In August 2012, the Deming Center hosted panel discussions on "Global E-commerce Strategies," "The State of the Economy and the Outlook for the Consumer," and "Probabilities on the Election and How the Outcomes Could Affect Consumers."

The 2011 edition was organized on August 2011 at Columbia Business School and included panel discussions on “Union Relations with Large Retailers,” “Consumer Economics,” “Digital Branding at the Very High End,” “Trends in Retail,” and “Social Media Strategies for Consumer Brands.”

The 2010 Deming Forum on Retail took place on August 4 and included panel discussions on "Digital Age Marketing for Retailers" and "Measuring the Effect of Customer Service Levels on Customer Purchases." Speakers included Michael Zimbalist, Vice President of Research and Development Operations of The New York Times Company, and Marcelo Olivares, Associate Professor in the Decision, Risk, and Operations Division at Columbia Business School.