Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
The seventh annual Global DIY Summit came to a close last Friday in Dublin. Throughout the three-day conference, representatives from around the world gathered to discuss issues impacting the home improvement market and the retailers serving it.
The event, which is jointly hosted by the European DIY Retail Association, the European Federation of DIY Manufacturers and the Global Home Improvement Network, began with a store tour that took conference delegates to visit six of Ireland’s leading home improvement retailing operations. The stops on the tour ranged from the privately held TJ O’Mahony’s to Ireland’s leading home improvement chain, Woodie’s.
Ace Hardware’s president and CEO John Venhuizen kicked off the Summit’s official program on Thursday morning with an energetic keynote presentation on what it takes to be a more engaged leader.
Venhuizen implored the crowd to focus more on becoming better at leading, because, “… you are not working on anything more important than the leadership of your people.”
Other speakers throughout the program included noted marketing and business professor Barbara Kahn from the Wharton School in Philadelphia who shared how business “disruptors” like Amazon have changed the way retailers have to connect with consumers.
“I don’t think retail is dead,” Kahn says. “I don’t think physical stores are dead. I do think bad retail is dead.”
On the second day of the Summit, program attendees got to learn about the latest developments in international markets like the European Union, China and Japan and gain some insights into retail innovations emerging from home improvement retailers in areas such as Russia and Albania.
The Global DIY Summit is designed to create a forum where the world’s leading retailers and manufacturers in the home improvement and garden industry can exchange ideas and views on the global market.
For more information about next year’s event or any of the hosting organizations, visit the Global DIY Summit or the European DIY Retail Association and Global Home Improvement Network online.
