Author: Derek Miller, Vice President, International, IHA
The 2009 HECNA Global Forum back in September was very successful with over 75 housewares professionals attending. With the economy making this a challenging year, the Global Forum was an energetic and upbeat event with attendees and speakers eager to learn and share their experience.
In a half-day session, Randy Huffman (Connect on LinkedIn), a former Walmart International executive, and now operating his own consulting firm GDB 360, discussed growing sales with global retailers through strategic business development and implementation – before, during and after the sale.
Retailers giving presentations included Ace Hardware International, Ace Israel, Steamer Trading Cookshop (UK) and Pao de Acucar (Brazil). Housewares retailers profiled included Hart Stores (Canada), Kaufhof (Germany), Tiendas Chapur (Mexico), Inspiration (Denmark), Stockmann (Finland), Tilbords (Norway) and ICA (Sweden). Attendees left with a wealth of retail knowledge and contacts.
One of the Global Forum’s highlights included two Strategic Problem Solving sessions that gave attendees the opportunity to discuss critical international issues with industry peers in a facilitated forum. The networking started at the Global Forum continues on the HECNA group on Linked In. If you are a HECNA member and have not yet joined this group:
All presentations from the 2009 HECNA Global Forum have been posted to the HECNA Members Only website found at http://www.housewares.org/hecna. You can join HECNA there as well!
Plans are already underway for the 2010 HECNA Global Forum. Pencil in September 19-21 in Miami…stay tuned for additional details…
