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DUBAI HOSTING MIDEAST MEETING NEXT MONTH

BY DEBRA HAZEL

Throughout much of the Middle East, the time-honored, open-air souk faces new competition from the Western enclosed shopping center concept. A region and industry in transition is to be the focus of the Middle East Council of Shopping Centers’ (MECSC) ninth Annual Shopping Centre Convention, scheduled for Oct. 6-9 at the Emirates Towers Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Delegates from India, the United Kingdom, the United States, Asia and continental Europe as well as the Middle East are expected to attend the conference, which is being organized jointly by MECSC and ICSC. The meeting was originally scheduled for March but got postponed because of the then-imminent war in Iraq.

As architecture changes, so do retailers, with international brands and European hypermarkets expanding in the region. Anthony Stokan, a partner at Toronto-based strategic planning firm Anthony Russell & Associates, will discuss the top 10 trends and countertrends affecting shopping centers in the Middle East over the next decade. These include the threat that technology poses to traditional shopping, the globalization of commerce, the vulnerability of luxury brands and shopping center differentiation.

A particularly regional problem — overreliance on foreign labor at a time of rising unemployment among nationals — will be addressed by Mohammed Mustafa Mahmoud, executive director of human resources development at Savola Group, which owns Saudi supermarket chain Panda Azizia, and other experts. Another session will highlight global best practices in retailing, while Simon Woodroffe, founder of the Yo Sushi restaurant chain, will discuss the future of retailing and creativity.

Phil McArthur, CSM, president of Cairo, Egypt-based CityStars, will chair a panel discussing case studies of new retail activities around the region. Other workshops will focus on energy management, franchise laws, marketing strategies and the shopping center as leisure destination.

There will be a trade exhibition at which vendors and suppliers present their services to the industry. The meeting will also include a visit to the Abu Dhabi and Marina malls, both located in the United Arab Emirate city, and a gala VIP dinner.

Two intensive half-day seminars, held simultaneously, will conclude the conference. The first, headed by Stokan, will deal with branding, increasing customer focus and ensuring shopper loyalty. The second will discuss the creation of an effective tenant mix. That session, led by George Wallace, CEO of retail consultancy Management Horizons Europe, will teach attendees to analyze shopper behavior and to match retailers accordingly. A separate registration and fee are required for these seminars.

Dubai-based MECSC, which is affiliated with ICSC, was founded in 1994. Its members include developers and other retail real estate professionals from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Mike Davidson, director of property for MKM Commercial Services, Dubai, is chairman of this year’s conference. The meeting will be conducted in English, with simultaneous Arabic translation available. For more information, contact MECSC at www.mecsc.org.