PRINT THIS STORY:

CHANGE TEXT SIZE:

University 2000 to feature 'field trip' to Mall of Georgia

A full-day on-site trip to the newly opened Mall of Georgia will be the highlight of the 2000 edition of the University of Shopping Centers, to be held Feb. 1 to 4, 2000 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta.

Being offered for the first time, the "field trip" will provide a multidisciplinary educational experience, said Madison Gross, ICSC manager of education.

"We've never had a shopping center tour like this. With other ICSC programs, you visit for an hour or two. This is a full day on the master plan of how this center was built. You'll hear from the people who own the mall, the people who built it," Gross said.

The 1.6 million-square-foot mall, a joint venture of Simon Property Group, Indianapolis, and Ben Carter Properties, Atlanta, opened in August.

The tour adds a day to what had been a three-day program, Gross noted.

"Most of us think of the University of Shopping Centers as a three-day event. Now it's four days, with the mall tour on Feb. 1, followed by three days of classes," he said.

Founded in the 1960s, the University was suspended in the early '90s.

"I suspect people thought that the School for Professional Development was enough," Gross said.

The School provides specific training that aids industry professionals in obtaining accreditations such as CMD, CSM and CLS, focusing on marketing, management and leasing. The University, however, provides a broader overview, and for that reason, it was revived last year.

The University usually is attended by more experienced professionals, Gross said. Attendees are looking to broaden knowledge, as opposed to training for their current or next posts.

"In the case of the School of Law, you may be a lawyer or work with lawyers and need to update knowledge," Gross said.

The 2000 University will offer 50 courses, 17 of which are new. Among the new courses: "Assessing Best Practices," "What You Should Know About Theater Operations and the Film Industry," "Capturing the Travel and Tourism Markets" and "Starting Over: Optimizing Land Use."