Shop.org announced today that the CEOs of two major specialty retail stores will address Internet and multichannel retail executives at the 2004 Shop.org Annual Summit, October 6-8 in Anaheim, CA.
Brad Anderson, Vice Chairman and CEO of Best Buy, will deliver a keynote address the morning of October 6. Anderson, who began his career with Best Buy in 1973, assumed the role of CEO in 2002. Minneapolis-based Best Buy, ranked #1 in the STORES magazine list of Top 100 Specialty Retailers and recently named Company of the Year by Forbes Magazine, is North America's leading specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances. The company and its subsidiaries reach consumers through nearly 750 retail stores in the United States and Canada.
On the morning of October 7, Bruce Nelson, Chairman and CEO of Office Depot, will also deliver a keynote. Nelson, who was named CEO in 2000 and Chairman of the Board in 2001, began his office products career with Boise Cascade in 1968. Founded in 1986, Office Depot is one of the world's largest sellers of office products with over 1,000 stores in 13 countries.
The Shop.org Summit is the premier event for the Internet and multichannel retailing industry, which grew 26% in 2003 to $96 billion. More than 1,000 industry leaders are expected to attend the Summit and participate in keynote addresses, panel discussion, interactive roundtable sessions and networking activities. Above all, the emphasis of the Summit programming is on exploring the role of the Internet in retailing today and in the future.
Shop.org is the network for retailers online. It’s where the best retail minds come together to gain the insight, knowledge, and intelligence to make smarter, more informed decisions in the evolving world of the Internet and multichannel retailing. Founded in 1996, Shop.org became a division of the National Retail Federation in January 2001. The association’s membership includes interactive executives from store-based retailers, catalog-based retailers, Web-based retailers, and retail solution providers. For more information, visit www.shop.org.
The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet and independent stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 20 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2003 sales of $3.8 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. For more information, visit www.nrf.com.
