The 2012 TFWA Asia-Pacific and Gate One2One conference will explore today’s powerhouses in duty free and travel retail and identify new areas of potential.
 
The conference, which is free to registered visitors at the annual TFWA Asia-Pacific and Gate One2One exhibition from May 13-17 at Singapore Suntec, will provide insights to key aspects of the business across the Asia-Pacific region and assess its future direction.
 
Opening the conference on May 14 with address on its central theme ‘Power and Potential in Asia-Pacific’, Erik Juul-Mortensen, President, TFWA, will assess the state of the industry in the region and the opportunities and challenges it faces.
 
The keynote speakers in the plenary session will be Eraldo Poletto, CEO, Furla, and globalisation expert Chandran Nair, CEO, Global Institute for Tomorrow, who will present their perspectives on the power and potential of Asia.
 
Poletto will look at how brands can harness the growth in demand from Asia’s luxury brand-hungry consumers and Nair will reveal some promising and harsh realities of the future landscape for business in Asia.
 
After the morning plenary session, delegates will be able to choose from two workshops, ‘China Revisited’ and ‘Emerging Asia’ focusing on development potential in China and other countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
 
The afternoon workshop ‘Technology Talk’ will give delegates the opportunity to explore the ways in which retailers and suppliers are exploiting the social media and smartphone phenomenon effectively in duty free and travel retail.
 
Alternatively, delegates can choose the ‘Airline & Inflight Asia’ workshop, led by a panel of airline and onboard retail experts, which will look at different airline business models - legacy, low-cost, hybrid - and their approach to inflight duty free and travel retail across Asia-Pacific.
 
The closing plenary ‘Creating powerful customer experience’ with Jonathan Chippindale, CEO, Holition and former Managing Director, De Beers Group, will look at the new frontiers of digital marketing and how this can be combined creatively with premium and luxury brands.
 
For further details of the TFWA Asia-Pacific and Gate One2One conference and exhibition, log on to www.tfwa.com. Registrations will open online on February 22, 2012.