| ABU DHABI – DISTREE Middle East has confirmed a packed line-up of workshop sessions for next week’s regional consumer technology retail channel event in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The workshop sessions form part of an extensive conference programme that runs alongside the main exhibition and thousands of one-on-one meetings that take place at the event. This year’s workshop cover a wide variety of topics including customer experience, omnichannel strategy, smart home opportunity, behaviour economics, online trends and identifying market growth drivers.
DISTREE Middle East, which takes place from May 10–12th at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr gathers together hundreds of senior executives and buyers from the region’s leading consumer technology channel players in one place at one time.
 Liam McSherry, Marketing Director at DISTREE Events, said: “DISTREE Middle East is an exclusive ‘invite only’ event for retailers and the workshop programme forms a valuable part of the overall experience. By bringing together expert speakers from multiple research houses and consultancies, we give delegates access to a broad selection of industry perspectives.”
“The workshops are an opportunity for senior executives from consumer technology retailers, distributors and vendors to hear expert speakers discuss current channel issues and exchange information with their peers. We’re excited to add new speakers from organisations such as Azur Digital, Legacy International and SixthFactor, alongside a strong content programme from Event Partner GfK as well as contributions from numerous other Content Partners.”
The full confirmed line-up of workshops for DISTREE Middle East 2016 is as follows:
- Consumer Tech Retail Around the World: Globetrotting consultant and retail analyst Ryan Mackey returns for his perennially popular ‘Retail Around the World’ session. A great opportunity for vendors, distributors and retailers to get up to speed on the latest retail concepts and models revolutionising consumer technology sales around the world. Get inspired and get new ideas for your business in 2016.
- Finding Value – Identifying Growth Drivers: Hosted by David Lewis, Head of Digital, GfK. Challenged currencies. Plummeting petroleum pricing. Tightening of tourism. With the MENA region facing unprecedented challenges, technology sales are experiencing volume decline in 2016. Through utilising the sales-out tracking across the MENA region, in this session GfK will identify drivers providing real value opportunities and assess how to maximise your returns.
- Why the World’s Best CEOs invest in Customer Experience: Hosted by Venkat Reddy, COO & Co-Founder of Legacy International. Customer experience is the secret sauce of most influential and profitable brands across the globe. With some classic references made by the leading CEOs this session will cover how companies can go about bringing the change that will positively impact on your top line and bottom line.
- Doom, Gloom or Boom – Inside the Middle East Channel: Hosted by Philip Hughes, Sales & Marketing Development Consultant Enviroserve Services. A high-level discussion of the Middle East consumer technology channel, examining the factors which have caused slowdowns in consumer confidence and business activity in certain sectors and market. Plus, an in-depth examination of the sectors which still represent significant growth opportunities for the consumer technology channel in the region.
- Online – Are we on Track? Hosted by Stavros Synodinos, Retail Manager Middle East, GfK. From traditional souks to smartphones, consumers are evolving the way they purchase tech goods and online is playing an increasing role globally. During this session GfK will assess the potential for online in the MENA region, sharing key insights on current consumer online behaviour and providing recommendations based on future expectations of the online landscape.
- The New Paradigm of Consumer Choices: Hosted by Himanshu Vashishtha, Founder & CEO, SixthFactor Consulting. Leveraging behaviour economics to influence your customers. To provide clarity, profitability and predictability in your business. discover more about SixthFactor’s mix of traditional and new-age marketing and research services in this cutting-edge workshop session.
- Smart Home Opportunity for the Middle East: Hosted by Howard Davies, Co-Founder & CEO, CONTEXT. This session will focus on a review of the latest developments in smart home and looks at how the Middle East, often an early adopter of new technology, can benefit from this emerging market.
- Meeting the Omnichannel Expectations of your Customers: Hosted by Stephane Paraiso, Managing Director, Azur Digital. In the eyes of a retailer, omnichannel may be perceived as just the next strategic step to take from their current multichannel position, but actually it is a giant leap. In this session, Azur Digital will discuss what it really takes for a retailer to meet the connected customers’ omnichannel expectations, from an organisational, operational and technological perspective, in particular within the context of consumer electronics.
All confirmed delegates for DISTREE Middle East can pre-register to attend workshop sessions through their web account. These sessions will then be added to their personal agenda for the event.
For more information on DISTREE Middle East 2016, visit www.distree-me.com. Follow @DISTREE_MidEast for event updates on Twitter. |
