WIDE SPECTRUM OF KEYNOTE SPEAKERS FOR TFWA AND APTRA INDUSTRY CONFERENCE ON CHINA

One of China’s leading media personalities is the latest representative of the business community to confirm that he will address the inaugural Industry Conference on China, entitled ‘China’s Century: The Fast Pace of Change in China Duty Free & Travel Retail, which will be staged from 5^th to 7^th March 2013 in the Beijing Hotel, Beijing.

Rui Chenggang, Anchor and Director for CCTV Business Channel will make a keynote presentation on the second day of the conference, which is organised for the duty free and travel retail industry by TFWA in partnership with APTRA, and given his grasp of the country’s pivotal role on the global political and business stage, it is expected to stimulate considerable debate among delegates.

As a journalist who understands the issues that are of concern to Chinese people of all social backgrounds, Chenggang will comment on the aspirations of the Chinese people themselves and how they wish to see China develop.

Other eminent commentators on Chinese society engaged to share their wisdom with delegates include James Kynge, Editor, China Confidential, FT who will present ‘The Rise of China’, an insightful assessment of the challenges of doing business in China drawing on research carried out by the Financial Times into consumer behaviour.

In ‘The Chinese luxury travelling consumer’, Rupert Hoogewerf, Founder, Chairman and Chief Researcher of the Hurun Report will share his unparalleled understanding of China’s luxury consumer – the rich and the ultra-rich – based on the research findings of the Hurun Report.

Given the appetite of Chinese people for luxury products it is no surprise that this statistical analysis will be supported by testimony from major multinationals including Andrew Wu, LVMH Group President, Greater China in his keynote presentation ‘From Evolution to Revolution: Understanding China’s Consumers’.

This will be followed by a panel discussion on ‘Luxury in China and the Chinese luxury consumer’ featuring Christian Blanckaert, Professor of Management, ESCP Business School, Simon Tam, Head of Wine - China, Christie’s, Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, CEO, Davidoff and Muriel Zingraff-Shariff, Director Retail Concessions, BAA.

Philippe Schaus, CEO, DFS will take up the baton from the duty free and travel retail industry perspective looking at how the channel must and will evolve in response to the demand for luxury goods.

Lu Lu, President, China Duty Free Group will provide a retailer’s perspective on the challenges and opportunities for the duty free industry in China and in ‘The Beijing Story’, Wei Zhang, Vice President of Beijing Capital International Airport, the official host of the event, will report on the evolution of its own commercial offer in line with changing passenger expectations.

Also contributing their considerable experience to the two-day event will be Mark Riches, Retail Consultant and former CEO World Duty Free, on ‘Excellence in duty free’ and Sunil Tuli, Managing Director (Duty Free) King Power Group Hong Kong on ‘The past, present and future of China Duty Free & Travel Retail: an insider perspective’.

Panelists Peter Harbison, Executive Chairman CAPA – Centre for Aviation, Wolfgang Weil, Chief Operations Officer, Xi'an Xianyang International Airport and John Woodhouse, Head of Business Development, China & East Asia, AerRianta International will take a detailed look at ‘China’s aviation landscape and the commercial potential’.

Representing the destination airports of Chinese travellers will be Emmanuel De Place, CEO, LS Travel Retail ASPAC and Freda Cheung, CEO Canada, World Duty Free Group in ‘China’s high-flyers: the opportunity for retailers and brands’.

The characteristics of this consumer group will be probed by Viveca Chan, Founder and CEO, WE Marketing Group, Andrew Stockwell, VP Asia Pacific, Forrester Research and Garry Stasiulevicuis, MD, Counter Intelligence Retail in ‘Market insights - Chinese consumers at home, away and online’.

And finally three of the many companies which are striving to succeed in China will present their experience in ‘Adapting to China - a supplier perspective’ led by Francis Gros, Group Travel Retail Director, Luxottica, Patrick Bouchard, Global Travel Retail Managing Director, Puig, Mohamed Elsarky, President, Godiva International and Cyril Camus, President, Camus Cognac.

Full details of the programme, the One2One meetings service, the social events, registration and the hotel booking service can be found at http://www.tfwa.com/duty_free/China-s-Century-Conference.17.0.html

The partners supporting the event include Diamond and Gala Dinner sponsor King Power Group (Hong Kong); Diamond sponsor Patron Spirits; Gold sponsor Puig; lunch sponsors DFS and Furla; coffee break sponsors Chivas, Ferrero, Perfetti Van Melle and Toblerone; other sponsors Colorful Licenses International, and Kipling.

Pre-registration for the inaugural TFWA/APTRA Industry Conference on China is open at www.tfwa.com.

Ends

For further information please contact

TFWA Press Office – Kate Teagle Tel: +44 1784 434 666

www.tfwa.com Email: press@tfwa.com