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Shopping Centers Today -> March 2003
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BUDAPEST VENUE FOR EUROPEAN CONFERENCE
BY SUSAN THORNE
Central Europe is playing a growing role in the pan-European market, so, fittingly, ICSC’s 28th annual European Conference will be held in Budapest, Hungary.
Organizers expect approximately 500 shopping center industry professionals from around the world to gather April 2-4 at the Budapest InterContinental Hotel for a wide-ranging program of presentations and discussion of European trends and recognition of achievements.
Each conference day will have a distinct theme: “What’s New and What’s Hot?” (April 2), “One Europe, or Many Different Markets?” (April 3) and “Improving Shopping Center Performance” (April 4).
“We’ll be focusing on the hot spots, particularly European integration,” said Ermine Evans, ICSC’s COO for Europe. She identified as a highlight “Around the World in 80 Minutes,” a virtual tour that features commentary with videos and photos of the past year’s most interesting and innovative shopping center projects worldwide. Analysis will be provided by Gontran Thuring, corporate leasing director of development firm SÉGÉCÉ, Paris; Charles Taylor, Budapest-based managing director of Cushman & Wakefield Healy & Baker; and others familiar with the region.
Other sessions will focus on the European economic picture, investment and development. Among the presenters and panelists will be Bernard Courtois-Suffit, executive manager of retail consulting firm Kharis Conseil, Paris; Guy Perry, managing director of Warsaw design firm IN-VI; Christopher Wicker, president, and Andy Watson, investment and valuation head, of The Retail Consulting Group, Paris; and Aniko Kostyal, area manager, international franchise, for Spanish retailer Mango. Michel Choukroun, a Université de Paris Dauphine professor, will offer insight into shopper behavior in a talk titled “The Alchemy of Shopping.”
Attendees will also have the opportunity to tour three leading Budapest shopping centers: the year-old Arkad, Duna and Mammut.
A new feature of this year’s conference is that business leaders not affiliated with ICSC can attend for the same price as members. According to Evans, the offer is intended to attract new faces to the organization. “We hope to bring in some of the brightest and best,” she said.
All presentations and discussions will be held in a plenary session format rather than the simultaneous workshops of previous years, giving attendees the chance to attend all events. Unlike many North American conferences, the European gathering does not offer a deal-making venue, and neither will there be any exhibit venues this year.
Two sets of awards and commendations will be presented at separate ceremonies on Thursday, April 3. The European Shopping Centre Awards will recognize outstanding new and renovated centers, while the Jean-Louis Solal Awards will honor excellence in marketing and promotions. For the first time, this year’s European Awards winners will be entered automatically in the International Design Awards announced at the ICSC Spring Convention in Las Vegas.
Conference activities will be conducted in English, with facilities for simultaneous translation into French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. The conference chairman is Zeev Ben-Zvi (Klein), chairman of ICSC Hungary and general manager of Plaza Centers Management, Budapest.
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