If necessity is the mother of invention, the organizers of the marathon 13-hour Global Retail Crime Summit may have given birth to the next generation of conference formats as part of a new post-pandemic world. The event, scheduled between 8:00 am to 9:00 pm on July 16 (CDT) brings together more than 1400 professionals from all over the world to interact with live sessions focused upon the challenging agendas of risk and loss prevention—without delegates having to leave their own homes. There have been virtual conferences in loss prevention before, but never one as ambitious as this Summit, which will stage multiple opportunities for delegates to review the presentations in line with the particular time zones they are in.
The promotional material for the event, which attracts the retail loss prevention and law enforcement community, simply says: “There is no question, the role of asset protection and loss prevention is more important than ever to ensure retail organizations thrive in the wake of COVID-19. Join transformational AP/LP executives, aspiring leaders, next-level investigators, heroic store professionals, and law enforcement from around the world for an unprecedented day of digital discovery, learning, and networking.”
With interest from the US, Europe, and the APAC regions, the timings of the presentations on the response to COVID-19, retail crime and ORC, innovation, leadership, and partnership means that the conference contributors are metaphorically crossing continents to take part, and it’s all totally free to join.
The event, organized by New Zealand-based retail crime intelligence platform Auror, has attracted a number of global loss prevention and asset protection speakers as well as contributors from the world of law enforcement.
“With the impact of COVID cancelling all conferences and tradeshows, we made the ambitious decision to launch a virtual event that would be accessible to all retail loss prevention and police across the world,” said summit organizer Marcus Hoefliger from Auror.
“We are living in unprecedented times where we are all asking how we navigate the future. What we’re most excited about is that we are democratizing access to everyone in the industry irrelevant of title, experience, travel, or costs that come with normally attending industry events.
“It allows important learning and huge opportunities for networking on a global scale. We have designed the Summit with the view to bring law enforcement together with retailers and vendors with key sessions being repeated later in the day for the audiences joining in their own time zones wherever they are in the world.
“The response to the open-to-all summit so far has been truly overwhelming. With over 1400 registrants and more joining every day it is fast becoming one of the largest events of the year,” added Hoefliger.
Participants include retailers such as Kroger, Home Depot, JCPenney, Bunnings, and Coles, as well as expert opinion and commentary from the likes of Wicklander-Zulawski, the Loss Prevention Research Council, and the ECR Retail Loss Group.
Steve Hewitt, a former UK retailer with more than 25 years’ experience in retail and loss prevention will be presenting to the Summit on the topic entitled “Incident Reporting, Why Bother?”, a joint speaker slot with Daryl Blackmore, head of loss prevention at Rexall Pharmacy Group in Canada.
Hewitt, the founder of loss prevention consultancy Profitunity, said, “This could signal the way forward for other events as businesses review the model and understand the time, cost, and environmental savings of not having to travel half-way around the world to be part of a major event. It’s a much better use of resources.”
For more information and to register, click here.
