Programme

Registration and morning refreshments

Welcome Address

Chair’s opening remarks: The Scale of the Challenge for a ‘Nation of Shopkeepers’

Keynote: Mapping the challenges and identifying the stakeholders

• The changing face of the high-street: structural change and market adjustment
  
• Urban regeneration to drive footfall
• The role of government in rejuvenating towns and communities

Keynote: Building and sustaining thriving communities

• Retail-led regeneration and driving footfall
• Re-inventing the high street for the 21st century customer
  

Keynote: The food-retail perspective in secondary and tertiary towns

• How do the retail staples evaluate investment locations?
• What makes a great high-street?

Panel discussion: Transparency & cooperation between stakeholders to drive results

Morning coffee & speed networking

Keynote: Changing Spaces - How can we breathe life back into our empty shops

• What the National Skills Academy for Retail is doing for retailers of all sizes, wherever they are located
• How retail skills shops helped fill the empty retail spaces in Sheffield and Birmingham

The Skillsmart Retail Location Model

• Using research to engage with independent retailers

Case Study Plymouth: Urban re-generation and development

• Dynamic Public Private Partnership – leading the way
• How can the public sector take a greater share of risk and subsequently greater reward?
• Unique structural strategies for delivering best results
  

Rejuvenating market towns: Innovation to drive excellence

• How can traditional industrial towns implement new ideas to benefit its town centres
• Encouraging creativity and innovation to increase footfall
• Best practices in rejuvenating market towns.

Working Lunch

Opportunity to meet the speakers and continue informal debate.

Retail Birmingham: Design Strategy for a Spectacular Shopping Environment

• How to secure engagement from all local stake-holders
• Securing investment to enable collaboration and drive growth
• Deploying collaborative strategies to preserve town centre vitality and deliver financial reward for all

Case Study Birmingham: Business and independent support in the economic downturn

• Financial support and securing funding
• Partnership working with Town Centre Managers
• Making the city attractive for new business

The Agenda for Change: Jeremy Collins, Head of Retail Development – The John Lewis Partnership and Former President (2009 – 2010) The British Council of Shopping Centres`

There are four parties who can improve the long term prognosis of the high street: national government, local authorities, property companies and retailers.

Putting your questions to Jeremy Collins will be Retail Week Editor, Tim Danaher and Local Government Chronicle Editor, Emma Maier. Leaving no stone unturned, this is your exclusive opportunity to ask the questions that really matter.

Scotland’s response to the challenge and interactive debate on collaboration

Professor Leigh Sparks was commissioned by the Scottish Government in late 2008 to prepare a review on Regeneration, entitled Policies Adopted to Support a Healthy Retail Sector and Retail Led Regeneration.

Drawing on this review, Professor Sparks will:

• Discuss the impact of retail on the regeneration of town centres and local high streets
• Demonstrate what local authorities can and have done to drive footfall to struggling locations
• Analyse how councils are actively encouraging growth and investment
• Critique the very latest thinking in structural and spatial change in retail

What makes a great town centre?

A vibrant local high street should offer a real mix of amenities and services. According to BSSA research, two thirds of consumers cited over 20 distinct offerings that it should feature. What do you think it needs?

Interactive audience polling session and panel discussion

Afternoon refreshments

Keynote: Keeping the heart of the high street beating - The Landscape of 2010 and beyond

Drawing on experience at the London Development Agency, London First and now the New West End Company, Dame Judith Mayhew shares insights into the re-vitalisation of shopping destinations, and maps the landscape of 2010 and into the future.

Can supermarkets save our high streets?

• What role can supermarkets play in supporting town centres?  How can they help drive footfall back onto the high street?
• What does a low carbon future mean for the way we shop?
• What is the role of retail in regenerating our communities?

Panel Debate: Actions - The future of the high street and its town centre

• Developing destinations in an evolving market
• The changing-face of the consumer: where, why and how are they shopping?
• Marketing and delivering high street identity effectively

A manifesto for the high street: editors’ and partners’ pledges