16 great reasons to book your place at the Charity Retail Conference 2022

News

05/08/2022 12:57

Taking place at Manahatta in Harrogate on the evening of Wednesday 14 September, the Sustainable Fashion Week Social is sponsored by CRA Corporate Member, Thriftify. Join Thriftify and winners of Thrift-Off (UK & Ireland’s search for top sustainable stylists) for a night of slow-fashion-themed fun and inspiration. See how the leading sustainable stylists are sourcing amazing outfits from charity retailers. Featuring leading sustainable fashion influencers strutting their stuff in charity shop gems, with plenty of crowd participation and networking.

For the first time ever, the Charity Retail Conference will be coming to you from the North of England and from our biggest venue to date – Harrogate Convention Centre. We’re stepping up and shaking it up – opening Conference to more people and new audiences. We’re really excited to welcome you! Harrogate is a popular and beautiful Victorian spa town with acres of parkland, gorgeous architecture, fabulous bars and restaurants and – most pertinent to Conference – loads of places to stay to fit all budgets. Find out more at Visit Harrogate.

Our Headline Sponsors are hugely important in helping us step up our Conference offer to you, bringing vibrancy to the exhibition and they are a lovely bunch too! Be sure to visit them on their stands during some productive exhibition time and have a chat during our social events. Huge thanks to Nisyst, Acopia Group, Choice Textile, Shopiago, Lodge Service, Wil-U and Eproductive.

One of our seven focus streams is ‘Impact on Ecommerce‘. Sessions include:

  • Starting up on eBay for Charity
  • Scaling up on eBay for Charity
  • Engaging Gen-Z
  • The recommerce race is on – how can charities be the winners of a growing trend?

We want to lead the way in sustainable events. A sector with reuse at its core, like ours, can still do more. Events are a vital part of what the CRA does – bringing our members together to learn and network. We have a focus stream dedicated to sustainability and an evening event celebrating sustainable fashion. But what about the logistics of putting an event together?

We’ve thought long and hard about how we can make the Charity Retail Conference more sustainable, and the following measures are in place:

  • As far as possible, we shall be paperless. The Conference app will include the programme, feedback forms, voting forms and advertising.
  • We will not be issuing lanyards or badge holders. We will ask delegates to bring their own, or produce compostable name stickers.
  • Sponsorships will not involve producing new items to give away, therefore no bags, pads & pens, or sponsored token gifts.
  • The new location, Harrogate Convention Centre means we are on one site for Conference and the Awards ceremony, and are walking distance from a mainline station – therefore cutting down on carbon emissions from travel. We also have a virtual ticket option.
  • We are working with Harrogate Convention Centre – who have made great strides in sustainable events in their own right – to implement actions to have the least negative impact on the environment that we can during the Conference.

One of our seven focus streams is ‘Impact on the Public‘. Sessions include:

  • Putting the customer at the heart of your retail offer
  • The power of influencer and VIP marketing
  • TRUST certification: Working with responsible recycling merchants
  • Social prescribing and the role of charity shops

One of our seven focus streams is ‘Impact on Sustainability‘. Sessions include:

  • Sustainability – the retail responsibility
  • Electrifying your fleet – is now the time to do it?
  • Sales and data technology to measure sustainability
  • Alternative shop formats: Textiles, haberdashery, arts and crafts

The Charity Retail Awards, generously sponsored by 1st Waste Management, are back with a bang, highlighting the extraordinary commitment and achievement that goes into enabling charity shops to go from strength to strength. The Awards will be presented at a lunchtime ceremony and lunch on Friday 16 September at Harrogate Convention Centre. Along with a special guest keynote speaker, the ceremony will conclude the 2022 Charity Retail Conference and will celebrate the incredible achievements of our sector.

Join us at our New York Fashion Week-inspired ‘Kudos to You’ drinks reception & buffet dinner on the evening of Thursday 15 September for fun, networking and entertainment, sponsored by Kudos Software. Dress to impress as you walk our red carpet and have your photo taken by the paps! Celebrate with a glass of our Kudos cocktail ‘Broadway Bellini’ or mocktail ‘Kudos Sunset’ and enjoy fantastic music from The Jazz Standard. We’ll also have a magician there to provide some light entertainment after the first full day of Conference.

One of our seven focus streams is ‘Impact on Strategy‘. Sessions include:

  • Evolution or revolution? How we have to adapt to a changing retail landscape
  • Strategic planning for smaller chains
  • How to future-proof your retail business
  • Futureproofing fashion: How can we build a circular textile economy?

One of our seven focus streams is ‘Impact on Profit‘. Sessions include:

  • HMRC Gift Aid audits – what to expect
  • The price is right!
  • Cash in on Gen-Z: Tap into new funding streams & increase revenue during the downturn
  • The Charity Shop Gift Card – An income generation tool
  • Charity retail’s response to the cost of living crisis

One of our seven focus streams is ‘Impact on Your People‘. Sessions include:

  • How charities can be more inclusive for LGBTQIA+ people to work and volunteer
  • Getting the best from your employees and volunteers – a legal overview
  • Reducing the impact of safeguarding on charity retail staff
  • Team mental health and wellbeing
  • Candidate attraction and retention
  • A strong volunteer pathway

One of our seven focus streams is ‘Impact on High Streets‘. Sessions include:

  • The impact of consumer behaviour changes on the high street
  • Does size really matter?
  • RE:Mkt
  • Pop-ups with impact
  • 12 year journey – inspiring a strategy for growth

The Charity Retail Association’s celebration of charity shop visual merchandising – The WOW! Factor Awards are 2 awards split into shop windows and shop interiors. All the entries are now in and they will be displayed for all Conference delegates to view and vote on in the Exhibition Hall across 15 and 16 September. We love this competition – full of outstanding use of colour, design, interest and commercial retail-beating ideas! Huge thanks to East London Textiles for their generous sponsorship of these Awards.

Over 50 exhibitors confirmed! There is dedicated time to explore the Exhibition, check out demos in our ‘mock shop’, kindly built by Morplan, do some deals and source new suppliers. Our conference app will aid navigation of the space and networking with individual suppliers. In our biggest venue to date, we are making the most of this incredible exhibition space with brand new features. Want to take part – Book here

With support from our fantastic Virtual Headline Sponsors eBay for Charity, we have built a mobile app for Retail with Impact Conference 2022! We’re aiming to make this conference our greenest yet, and this app has been developed to host useful information that was once on paper. With your conference plan on your phone it will enable you to make the most of your conference experience, including curating your own schedule and the ability to connect with other delegates, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors, including eBay for Charity.

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