Grand Auditorium (Level 1), Palais des Festivals
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This year’s conference will aim to explore how the industry is reinventing itself and what more can be done to provide fresh impetus. Themed “A new era: reinventing duty free and travel retail”, the conference will see high powered individuals provide vision, new ideas and challenging concepts to enable delegates to rethink some of the current practices. There are few business leaders better suited to share their vision than the CEO of L’Oréal, Jean-Paul Agon. L’Oréal is the industry’s leading brand with almost
$ 2,5 billion in 2009, representing just under 7,2% of the global duty free and travel retail business (Source: Generation). Jean-Paul Agon will offer his vision on how the industry could and should reinvent itself.

A major factor influencing how brands and retailers are rethinking their strategies is the ever-increasing demand among consumers for more socially and environmentally conscious products and services. Sir Alan Watson is Chairman of Havas Media UK, part of the global advertising network which has produced a second edition of its Sustainable Futures research. The research looks at how consumers perceive businesses and brands in their drive for sustainability and how this perception affects their purchasing decisions. Lord Watson will impart on delegates some of the clear messages emanating from this survey, conducted among 30 000 consumers globally. He will focus in particular on why businesses across all categories need to take concrete measures today in order to stay in line with consumer expectations.

Our final keynote speaker this year promises to bring some revealing insights into a wide variety of factors which can influence the consumer’s buying behaviour. The impact of the senses, deep set rituals and subliminal messages are just some of the areas that branding expert Martin Lindstrom will discuss. Peppered with examples from across a wide variety of product sectors, Martin Lindstrom will explore in his presentation how the mind works in mysterious ways to affect why and what we buy, based on a comprehensive neuro-marketing study which has produced some surprising results. He will also address some of the reasons why consumers don’t buy, focussing of course on the duty free and travel retail shopping environment in particular.

Moderated by Stephen Sackur, HARDtalk Presenter, BBC