Hundreds of attendees for the first day of ICSC’s 2015 European Conference – EuropaProperty

More than 700 retail real estate professionals have converged on London for the 40th annual ICSC European Conference today, making the event an unprecedented success.

“With an important theme and with top influential speakers and industry CEOs from around the world in attendance, this is the must-attend retail property event in Europe this year,” said Mike Morrissey, Executive Vice President of ICSC.

The European Conference kicked off today with the first-ever NEXT GEN LIVE! session that was launched during the event. The session was live streamed to all ICSC members around the world who enjoyed presentations from three top level speakers. Josip Kardun, CEO Atrium Group presented a session on “How to lead successful firms”, followed by Dr Julie Grail BSc PhD, Chief Executive British BIDs, Joint Managing Director Central Management Solutions who gave a talk on “How to lead a successful place” and the final session focused on “How to lead successful people”, by Chris Igwe, Head of Retail France at CBRE.

Several presentations took place throughout the day including a discussion on Diversity in the Retail Real Estate Industry, moderated by Alison Rehill-Erguven, Chair of the new European Diversity Group. Finally, the audience enjoyed an insightful final presentation by keynote speakerScott Galloway, Clinical Professor of Marketing at NYU, and founder of L2 on how digital will revolutionize the role of the store and impact the major brands driving the retail industry.

“We certainly have something to celebrate this year as our industry gathers in London,” noted ICSC President and CEO Michael P. Kercheval. “Europe’s economy is growing again, and our industry is the vanguard of that recovery.”