Spring Fair has announced the Inspiring Retail Stage content programme, which is packed full of speakers from John Lewis, Sedex and Mintel, founder of Green & Blacks Jo Fairley, TV personalities Billie Faiers and Paul Moneypenny, as well as inspiring and informative insights, industry awards, and the essential trends for 2022 and beyond.
The programme includes sessions on trends that will shape consumer behaviour, building your retail business by building links with the local community, and using bold design to help your store have more impact.
View the latest programme at www.springfair.com/seminars and download the official Spring Fair App to add sessions to your calendar. Spring Fair is held at the NEC Birmingham from 6-9 February.
Created as a platform to champion retail, the Inspiring Retail Stage’s full schedule of live content will cover a dedicated theme relating to this season’s Empowering Change manifesto on each day of the show, kicking off with ‘The trends that will shape consumer behaviour in 2022’ on Sunday 6 February.
Highlights include the opening session at 11.30am with Simon Moriarty, Head of Trends at Mintel. Simon discusses ‘The trends that will shape consumer behaviour in 2022’.
Join Karl McKeever, Founder of FUTURVIEW at 1pm for ‘Business Unusual’, as he shares his experience on how you can thrive in an era of unparalleled change, help you discover how to develop a culture of curiosity to keep you in front of latest trends, and explore how to spot opportunities ahead of the curve for early advantage.
Following the launch of his own interiors collection at Autumn Fair last September, interior designer Paul Moneypenny returns to the Inspiring Retail Stage at 2pm for a workshop session on ‘How to use bold design in your store to make impact’, including tips for building impactful window displays, and the positive impact of colour and pattern on people.
At 3pm, the stage welcomes the inspirational team from Yarnton Home and Garden Centre for ‘Retail View: Transforming retail with the community in mind’. This session explores how Yarton turned their business around by building closer links with the community, translating their values into the store, and made Twiggy a bit of an icon!
Day one closes with a celebration of UK retail and the businesses that are making a difference. In partnership with Modern Retail, Spring Fair host the Good Retail Awards for the third year, recognising the good practices in UK retail and sharing the successes in all areas of retail.
Monday is all about Trends, Sustainability and Innovation in Retail, with retailers and global organisations sharing the highs and lows of their journeys. Kicking off at 10.30am, Kate Usher, senior trend consultant at Trend Bible offers vital insights into 2023 Home & Lifestyle Trends to help inform your buying season as she uncovers consumer behaviours and lifestyle choices set to underpin product and design trends for the home in 2023.
At 11.30am, Samual Cliff, member director at SEDEX delves deep into ‘How do you know who you are doing business with?’, focusing on sustainability in the supply chain.
Founder of Green & Blacks, Jo Fairley, follows at 12.30pm with ‘Living your values is just the way you do business’. Jo will talk about her experience of founding a business during a recession, the importance of being able to change direction and to be creative, and importantly, of staying true to her core values that every business should do business in a way that shows they care about their people and the planet as well as the bottom line.
At 2pm, the stage welcomes TV personality, Billie Faiers for ‘Interior Design the Billie Faiers way’. Best known for her TV show The Family Diaries, she is now following her passion for interiors, launching her own home & lifestyle brand, with Spring Fair exhibitor Hunter Price International. Billie will be talking about her own inspirations, how she has worked to develop her ranges, and her longer term ambitions.
The Greatest Christmas Awards take place at 5pm, celebrating all that’s great about garden centres at Christmas. The GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards brings the industry together to celebrate great work over the festive season.
The theme for Tuesday 8 February is Changing Mindsets – being comfortable with the unknown in order to thrive – and is packed full of insight into how to change your own mindsets in order to thrive, how you can build that culture within your business and learn from other business leaders as they share how they have navigated unprecedented change in order to grow. Each session is insightful and practical and geared towards helping give retailers the tools to succeed in an ever-changing world.
Following an insightful trend presentation from Kate Usher at TrendBible at 10.30am on the key Gifting trends impacting consumers and key opportunities that will elevate your celebration, occasion and gift ranges to new levels, join Charley Crocker from The Pop Up Agents at midday for ‘The Power of Pop-Ups’ where he talks through the local authority-led Pop Up scheme Pop-Up Horsham, which acted as a showcase for local businesses and products, and explains how this can be a valuable tool for local authorities and retailers alike.
At 1pm, Anna Berry, founder of Retail100 consulting and former head of gift, cook and dine at John Lewis, shares what she learnt building high-performing teams at John Lewis, and shares her insight into how you can get the most out of your team.
Don’t miss the ‘Dare To Change’ session at 2pm with Alan O’Neill, managing director of Kara and the man who has helped Selfridges, Fenwick, Primark and Harrods thrive. He will share his experiences of supporting iconic brands such as Ann Summers, Fenwick, Harrod’s, Primark and Selfridges to grow their physical store sales.
On the final day, Spring Fair collaborates with its wellbeing and charity partner The Retail Trust to deliver a meaningful and useful business workshop at 11am ‘Supporting your people in order to thrive’ to help guide us towards better business.
During ‘A Buyer’s Life’ at 12pm, discover the top tips on what both buyers and suppliers need for success with Sara Allbright, founder of Retail100 consulting and former head of gift buying at John Lewis.
