Since its launch in 2015, the Global Footwear Retail Conference (GFRC) has been bringing together over 100 key footwear retailers to this annual meeting in Hong Kong to discuss on ground-breaking ideas, latest innovations, technologies and critical issues that are shaping the retail scene.

In each edition, the programme is designed to stimulate interactive and constructive discussions between industry experts and a wider audience, while giving participants numerous business networking opportunities to maximise their visit.

This new edition of the GFRC will take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on the 30th of March. The themes under discussion have been divided in three sessions featuring:
• Political choices reshaping the world: what impact on the footwear retail industry?
• Disruptive technologies in footwear retail: Virtual Reality, Live streaming, 3D printing. Will they bring customers back to the stores or keep them home?
• Footwear consumer’s preferences: key trends from Athleisure to Smart shoes distilled by GFRC’s experts.

Political choices are reshaping the world and have an impact on how and where products, including fashion and footwear, are going to be manufactured and sold. Hard earned international trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal which has been abandoned by the new US administration are in jeopardy while new ones are being negotiated. These decisions will, with no doubt, have some impact on businesses and trade flows in markets all over the world.
 
Thomas Crockett, Director, Government & Regulatory Affair of the Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America (FDRA) will address the main topics in a session  moderated by Peter Mangione, Managing Director and Founder of the US-based Marketing consulting Global Footwear Partnerships LLC. Representatives of international footwear brands will clarify and explain the current situation from the perspective of their respective organisation.

The second session will provide the opportunity to reflect on the digital technologies and its impact on the various aspects of the product value chain. Speedier wireless communications are giving retailers more bandwidth to tell their stories. HD video, virtual reality, live-streaming and fashion assistant apps are some of the marketing tools that feed omni-channel retail, besides the always present topic of 3D printing and its potential applications. These disruptive technologies will also be explained and demonstrated by developers of apps and of innovative manufacturing processes.

Claude Eric Paquin, President of the French Federation of Footwear, will moderate a debate with speakers Segio Dulio and Shirley Saylor.  Mr Dulio is the Manager of ATOMLab Research and Innovation unit of the Italian ATOM Group, one of the world’s leading companies in the field of shoe machinery, and will describe brand new scenarios where the physical and virtual worlds as well as purchasing and manufacturing merge in a whole new format of retail. Shirley Saylor, Vice President of International Business Development, Fashion Mii will depict how digital platforms such as fashion mii, can help brands to tell their fashion story. Shirley is a well-rounded business leader in the Footwear industry who has held executive roles with Le Saunda, Mirabell, Skechers China, Caleres and Florsheim China.

Last but not least, GFRC’s experts will demystify new footwear trends from Athleisure to Smart shoes, having Eddie Wong, Senior Research Associate, Fung Global Retail & Technology as speaker.

GFRC is one of Asia's leading conferences in the footwear sector attracting the experts from all segments of the footwear industry and academia, with high quality presentations and discussions on political, commercial and global trade issues affecting the production and the retail of footwear products; innovative retail technologies as well as footwear trends.

For more information about the Global Footwear Retail Conference please refer to conference website.