Events

Sears Externship

2011 Sears extern Katie Merkhofer

This fall Kelley students are working on a social media externship with center partner and Chicago based retailer, Sears. The students are blogging and providing Facebook updates for Sears to help them build relevance for the brand with the college demographic. The students discuss their college experience and how Sears products are used in their daily lives. Sears plans to use the information provided by the students to influence product decisions and guide future plans about the use of new media in brand development. 

Global Department Store Summit 2010

WINNING IN THE NEW RETAIL ENVIRONMENT

In the current challenging economy, retailers all over the world are re-thinking their strategy, re-organizing their company to adapt to the new environment. Department stores in particular need to enhance footfall to their stores, increase conversion rates and sales volume, adapt assortments and inventories and manage their team towards excellence in customer services.

Benefits of attending:

• Identify the latest shifts and emerging trends in the department store industry
• Benchmark your company and assess the impact of new visions and strategies
• Meet with top executives from the most influential department stores in the world

Executive Speaker Series

The Center invites an executive at a leading corporation to speak at Kelley each year. In fall 2008, the CEO of Zappos.com told Kelley students about the importance of Twitter and customer service.

A user explores a virtual store environment during the 2007 Shoppability Workshop

Shoppability Workshops

Kelley’s Shoppability Workshops highlight the groundbreaking consumer behavior research being conducted by Raymond Burke and other Kelley faculty and students. These conferences feature presentations and discussions by leading corporations and researchers that have studied how retail environments can translate consumer demand into purchases.

ACRA Charrette

Students from the Kelley School of Business joined over 40 students from across the United States, Canada, and the UK to participate in the third annual American Collegiate Retailing Association (ACRA) Charette hosted by the University of Florida. The Charette employed cross functional teams of students studying business, interior design, fashion design, and architecture to develop a 12,000 SF new store prototype for a Florida based surf-wear retailer. The students met with senior management from the client and spent a day photographing and studying product assortments in the client's main location in Cocoa Beach. The next day the students met with industry experts in finance, store design, marketing, and operations before spending an intense two day, two night concept development period assembling their client presentations. All teams presented their concepts to the CEO, CFO, and CMO of the client on Saturday morning. The Client selected the winning concept and many of the student ideas presented will find their way into the new store location opening in Destin this summer.