Next January’s Trinity Forum 2013 (29-31 January) is fielding a strong line up of speakers at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Abu Dhabi.

 

The event is jointly organized by ACI World and The Moodie Report and next January’s event is being hosted by Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) with ADAC Chief Commercial Officer Mohammed Al Bulooki remarking earlier this year that his company is ‘proud’ to be hosting the event and Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World adding that the organisation is equally pleased with the venue.

 

Formal registration opens at 1500 on January 29, with a welcome reception in the evening before the conference itself begins on January 30 with welcomes from Dermot Davitt, Deputy Publisher, The Moodie Report, Angela Gittens from ACI and Mohammed Al Bulooki, ADAC.

 

A 30-minute presentation on ‘Ten Years of Trinity’ follows from Martin Moodie, Founder & Chairman, The Moodie Report, ahead of the first-day keynote address from Philippe Schaus, Chairman & CEO, DFS Group (see top image).

 

After coffee and a 10-minute film entitled ‘Innovation in Travel Retail’ by Marshall Arts International, the first panel debate is then scheduled with the interesting title: ‘Ten Years On, is the Trinity Concept Valid?’

 

This will feature a special ‘Trinity’ panel, including Muriel Zingraff-Shariff, Retail Concessions Director, London Heathrow Airport and Dan Cappell, Senior Vice President Commercial, Abu Dhabi Airports Company.

 

‘TAKING TRAVEL RETAIL TO A NEW LEVEL..’

Following this, Roland Abella, Managing Director, Diageo Global Travel & Middle East will be ‘Taking Travel Retail to a New Level’, before Dr. Zhou Ting, Associate Professor of Beijing’s University of International Business and Economics & Dean of the Fortune Character Institute addresses the weighty subject of ‘Understanding the Luxury Chinese Traveller’.

 

Dag Rasmussen, Chairman and CEO, Lagardère Services.

Following lunch, the session entitled ‘Destination Unknown’ will ask if airports and their partners are delivering a sense of place, with this subject set to be debated by René Baumann, Vice President – Commercial, Bangalore International Airport and Eric De Jager, CEO Travel Retail, Tourvest.

 

A Trinity panel discussion will then address the questions of ‘How can the Trinity raise its collective game to grow the pie for all and what more can each Trinity stakeholder do?

 

This will be led by Susan Whelan, Senior Executive Vice President, King Power International Group (Thailand), Gilly Gray, General Manager Retail and Car Parks, Melbourne Airport, and Barbara Lavernos, Managing Director, L’Oréal Luxe – Travel Retail Worldwide.

 

Angela Gittens from ACI.

The end of day one will then demonstrate ‘How Trinity Really Can Work – a Case Study’ with Peter-Jan Rozenberg, Retail Director at Schiphol Airport and Alan Brennan, Customer Marketing Manager; Nestlé International Travel Retail.

 

All the first day’s hard work will then be followed by pre-gala dinner cocktails and the dinner itself hosted by ADAC.

 

PROMISING 2ND DAY PROGRAMME

The second and final day of the conference will then kick off with a second ‘Innovation in Travel Retail’ film from Marshall Arts International, followed by ‘Getting serious about innovation’ – a presentation from Rick Blatstein, CEO, OTG Management.

 

The second major keynote address at the event will then be delivered by Dag Rasmussen, Chairman and CEO, Lagardère Services, before Bill Matz, President, of The S-A-P Group and Dr. Rafael Echevarne, Director of Economics, ACI get into the intriguing subject of ‘Benchmarking Airport Commercial Revenues and Airport Commercial Quality.

 

Dan Cappell, Senior Vice President Commercial, Abu Dhabi Airports Company.

‘The Travel Retail Republic’ is then billed as ‘a unique perspective’ on the industry, with delivery by Jim Perry, Vice President and Managing Director, Global Travel Retail, Brown-Forman. In turn, this is due to be followed by ‘Best practice in a virtual world’ from Shashank Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying.

 

Last, but not least, a Trinity panel discussion will then ask the big question, ‘How do we drive growth in the next decade?’. This will feature contributions from Garry Stock, Chairman, James Richardson Duty Free, Andreas Fehr, Managing Director, Kraft Foods World Travel Retail and Carsten Nørland, Vice President Sales and Marketing, Copenhagen Airports.