From the Editor: The Second Annual Independent Retailer Conference Recap

In short… we did it! Thanks to our amazing sponsors, supporters, speakers and attendees, the second annual Independent Retailer Conference successfully came to life this past Monday, May 20, 2013. Next week I plan to share a full recap of the event, but I couldn’t wait till then to share with you at least a little bit from the day.

For starters, we held the event at the beautiful Scholastic Auditorium in New York City. The venue was truly one of a kind – which any indie store owner can appreciate. Additionally, the event simply would not have been a success without the support of our stand-out sponsors that were on-site to engage, learn and connect with our attendees!

A big thanks to:

SnapRetail (easy e-Marketing specifically designed for indie retailers)

Shopkeep POS (cloud based POS that makes your life a lot easier)

MOO.COM (luxury and stylish print collateral for small bizs)

Kabbage (capital in 7 minutes or less… for real)

And the Retail Council of New York State, our welcome sponsor for the Independent Retailer Conference. They recently rolled out a “I Shop NY” campaign, as well, which was a lot of fun to learn about (even if you don’t call NY your home).

Additionally, we were thrilled to have the support of the following other retail supporters:

ASD Trade Shows (they even gave away a trip for two to one lucky attendee!)

Smart Retailer Magazine (who offered free subscriptions to their great magazine to all attendees!)

Pop Chips (they provided some yummy snacks on-site for attendees)

Frava Beverages (caffeinated juice… fantastic)

Zico Water (so refreshing and tasty)

Snap Infusion (super candy, as in super food… for real)

Icelandic Glacial Water (as good as water gets!)

Outburst Energy Bites (caffeniated chocolate… wonderful)

Eat Whatever (Freshable, kissable breathe snack)

Viva Catering (The best NY caterer in town!)

And of course, Nolcha Events! We couldn’t have done this without them!

I can’t stress enough the value of our presenters, as well. We had an impressive line-up of speakers and panelists that supported our attendees with outstanding information. One of our presenters, Cathy Wagner of Retail Mavens, even took notes on the other presenters when it wasn’t her turn to deliver a keynote presentation! Here are some of the thoughts she collected during our jammed-packed, education rich day:

“1. From Ron Cates of Constant Contact: Use Arial or Tahoma font (or another sans serif font) for your emails because that makes it easier to read.

2. From Ron Cates of Constant Contact: Keep your header image smaller than 150 pixels so that people can get to your content fast.

3. From Ron Cates of Constant Contact: There is a large library of resources to help you generate better emails at Constant Contact.

4. From the panel on Public Relations: Media is ALWAYS looking for content. You have to make time to get your info to them and to develop relationships. That is done by emailing them ideas on a regular basis. Ideas for segments that they can run – for example, “How to translate Fashion Week styles into your one wardrobe” or “Black and White are hot for summer. This is how you can do it.”

5. From the panel on Applications: Claim your google+ local location now. Many retailers have not done this and are missing the opportunity to maximize local searches.

6. Carissa Reiniger, President of Silver Lining Ltd., reminded us of the importance of being focused. We must be able to answer these questions specifically. What do you do? Who do you do it for? What scale do you do it on?Then use the answers to fill in the blanks of this sentence. I _________ for _________ on a _________ scale. I did it for myself. RETAILMavens increases profits for indie retailers on a global scale.

7. Jason Richelson, Founder of ShopKeep POS suggested some great online tools to help your business run more smoothly.  RingCentral.com for phone systems. WhenToWork.com does scheduling and helps plan your payroll budget.  Bill.com allows you to manage your payables faster.”

Cathy also told her dedicated followers to “not miss the event next year”, while one attendee even emailed us that they learned “more in one day than I have in the three years my store has been open”.

Finally, the above photo is of one of our two panels. This particular shot is of our APP Panel, with myself serving as moderator. We also had a great PR Panel that day that I can’t wait to share more details about later!

Looking forward to sharing more news about this great event next week. Somewhere between then and now, I plan to take a long nap…

Till then, happy retailing!

 

Nicole Leinbach Reyhle

Founder & Editorial Director

Retail Minded