Leading retail industry trade associations Global Market Development Center (GMDC)|Retail Tomorrow and International Housewares Association (IHA) have partnered to facilitate GMDC|Retail Tomorrow’s 2021 Fall Strategic Meetings, a three-week series of virtual events tailored for top retail and wholesale companies, and their supplier and service companies, to participate in collaborative trading partner sessions.
Following the associations’ joint event in the spring, the fall strategic meetings will take place from September 28 – October 15 to continue promoting connectivity across retail associations, accelerate long-term business growth and identify, prioritize and address new business opportunities in the industry.
Focused on selfcare, general merchandise (GM) and housewares, event attendees, including both GMDC|Retail Tomorrow and IHA members, will have the opportunity to collaborate with members from each association and discuss the industry’s most pressing issues within these categories as they relate to merchandising, marketing, e-commerce, consumer and shopper insights, omnichannel agility, sales trends and strategies.
The timing of the event series offers retail partners the opportunity to build on their current plans and make thoughtful adjustments for 2022. The goal is to reimagine the way in which retail trade members conduct and grow their businesses beyond the pandemic, and innovate for the future.
In an effort to provide attendees with the most flexible virtual event format, meetings are specifically curated to support both retailer and supplier needs, and the fall meetings will be segmented across selfcare, GM and housewares categories throughout the three-week period:
- September 28 – October 1: Session 1 – Selfcare Categories
- October 5 – 8: Session 2 – GM Categories
- October 12 – 15: Session 3 – Housewares Categories
Buyers will indicate their interest in meeting with specific sellers by way of a ranking system to express high interest/some interest/low interest/no interest, while sellers will indicate their interest in any meetings with buyers with a yes/no qualification. Participating companies are not limited in the number of colleagues they’re able to bring to each meeting.
There is no registration fee for the event. Participating suppliers will be invoiced for each meeting scheduled and accepted during the event, but will also have the opportunity to register for all virtual events and meetings that will take place during the three-week period.
For more information and to register for the GMDC|Retail Tomorrow and IHA’s Fall Strategic Meetings, please visit: https://gmdc.org/virtual-event-fall
