VMSD held its seventh annual International Retail Design Conference September 19-21 at Atlanta's InterContinental Buckhead hotel.

Wal-Mart's Charles Zimmerman opened the conference, detailing the retailer's green initiatives—energy-efficient lamping, daylighting, water and heat reclamation, white roofing and other practices—and their impact on the bottom line.

"Energy is Wal-Mart's second largest operating expense," he told the IRDC audience. "For us to be a low-price retailer and not focus on reducing our number two operating expense would be ridiculous." Zimmerman shared payback data for a variety of initiatives, including the chain's 2,500 white roofs, which reduce heating/cooling load by 10 percent, and replacing exterior signage lights with LED lamps. "In the past, relamping exterior signage was dangerous, costly and had to be performed every two years. Now we never relamp. The LEDs last longer than the signs."

Other program highlights:

• Nike's Asia Pacific Creative Team and their design firm partner, Twenty Four Seven, shared Nike's strategy for creating temporary-branded environments (pop-up stores) to create excitement for products, events or specific sports in markets throughout Asia.
• In "Helping Grocers Think Like Restaurateurs," Safeway's Eric Quick and Lee Peterson discussed Safeway's response to the surge in restaurant spending among America's consumers: the launch of a standalone restaurant concept called Citrine. "Restaurant sales are steadily growing," said Quick, "yet prepared foods count for just 2.5 percent of grocery store sales. Should restaurants be on grocers' radar screens?"
• New for 2007, a Visual Merchandising Symposium featuring insight from Victor Johnson of Ann Taylor and Ann Taylor Loft, Sharon Lessard of Bath & Body Works, Tracey Peters of Holt Renfrew, Heather Shuster of IKEA and Paul Olszewski of Macy's East.
• James Damian of Best Buy and Moira Cullen of Coca-Cola closed the conference with strong approaches for the practical and emotional drivers of creativity. Damian was there to accept, for Best Buy, the 2007 Peter Glen/VMSD Retailer of the Year award.

The conference was a blend of presentations, roundtables, panel discussions, hands-on exercises, networking and fun. Attendee Susan Weingarten of GRID2 offered this feedback: "Activities such as the roundtable discussions offered focused opportunities for networking, beyond the typical meet and greet. Such topical discussions allowed me to really get to know the other participants, and to appreciate the source of their insights. The speakers were both credentialed and entertaining—presentations were extremely relevant and on point, addressing the day-to-day issues and trends of our industry."