In-Store Asia planned for February 2011; to be back after 18 month hiatus

The sixth edition of the marketing at retail conference and expo is planned for February 1-3, 2011.

The stage is set - well almost. The sixth edition of In-Store Asia, the marketing at retail conference, has been announced and will be held on February 1-3, 2011 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai. The event will be back after a hiatus of a year and a half, the last one being held in July 2009.

In-Store Asia provides a common platform that encourages knowledge and business transactions between the various interest groups such as brand marketers, retailers, retail solution providers, POP/signage producers and design agencies in the country.

The theme for In-Store Asia 2011 will be 'Insight before Activity'. Discussing the theme, Sachin Jante, marketing manager, VJ Media Works, says, "For shopper marketing activities or any visual merchandising (VM) effort to work, an insight is essential. A shopper marketing activity or VM without insight is as good as 'no activity' because it's a blind spot for shoppers and a black spot for brand marketers. It's this significance of 'insights' that made us base In-Store Asia 2011 on the theme 'Insight before Activity'."

Sharing why the event did not take place in 2010, Jante explains that as the 2009 event was postponed from January to July due to the economic slowdown, a gestation period was required. Also, the opportune time for having exhibitions and events is the first quarter of every year as the zest among people is present and so is the will, hence the decision to have the event in February 2011.

While the work on creating a credible host of speakers is in progress and will be announced soon, it is learnt that one of the speakers is Harish Bijoor, a branding consultant who runs the boutique consulting outfit Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

The jury members include big names of the industry, including David Blair, managing director, Fitch South Asia; Paul Olszewski, director of windows, Macy's East USA; Surender Gnanaolivu, vice-president, store development, Mahindra Retail; Giorgio Borruso, founder, Giorgio Borruso Design CA; Elena Maurer, director, Key Account Development USA; Ajay Shah, principal designer, Ajay Shah Design Studio; and Sanjay Puri, principal architect, Sanjay Puri Architects.

In-Store Asia 2011 will have approximately 20 speakers and the expected delegate count is close to 500.

The topics of discussion and debate at In-Store Asia 2011 will be categorised into Visual Merchandising, Store Design, Shopper Marketing, Shopper Behaviour, Category Management and Point of Purchase Communication.

The event will be spread across three days and like each year, will include a convention, an expo and an awards function.

The event is being organised by VJ Media Works, a media company with interests in publishing and industry events related to the marketing communications and retail businesses. The company owns three established publishing brands, Point-of-Purchase, Outdoor Asia and VMRD, targeted at the in-store marketing fraternity, out of home advertising community and retail design and VM industry respectively.

The magazine concepts also extend to on-ground events in the form of In-Store Asia, OAC (Outdoor Asia Convention) and DSA (Digital Signage Asia) under the banner of ThoughtShows and Events.