The Leaves are Falling; Must Be IRDC

Ah, September. For me, that’s always meant summer’s over, back to school, leaves are falling and IRDC is coming.

We began this conference in 2001 with high hopes and great expectations. I firmly believed that this industry needed a few days of information, inspiration and networking – just getting together to discuss, share and solve problems. Where else do you get a sympathetic, understanding and knowledgeable ear during the year to talk about your particular issues? Your CEO? CFO? I didn’t think so.

2001. Who doesn’t remember that September? Nobody was getting on planes. Especially to go to Disney World, target of the next big anthrax attack. Also, that fall, Peter Glen died, just before IRDC kicked off.

We also dealt with hurricane warnings in Miami in 2003 and ’04. But we persevered, and you stuck with us. Chicago. San Francisco. Atlanta. Seattle. Great conferences, great times, great reviews, attendance bulking up as the word caught on: This is the place to be for this industry.

Now it’s 2009, and many people aren’t getting on planes again. And a change in the winds won’t blow the economy out to sea or up the coast like it did the hurricanes. Sure, hard times are exactly the times when you need to refresh and respond, to get your juices flowing. But that argument doesn't always have much of an impact on the executive floor.

We've got plenty of high-profile retailers and executives already registered for IRDC. And it's not too late to join them. Just look at our program. Burt Tansky is speaking. Any retailer – anyone in the retail game – needs to hear this extraordinary executive talk about the times.

And after Burt, the program just keeps exploding, as it always does. The roundtables. Iron Merchant. India. China. Latin America. Cost-cutting hints. Retailer of the Year. (What could be more inspirational – and helpful – than hearing the Urban Outfitters/Anthropologie story?)

There’s a session called “Wild Ideas, Concrete Solutions.” And Raymond Mastrobuoni is sharing a panel with Ignaz Gorischek. Can you miss that? Right down to the end, when Stanley Hainsworth will close out the show. This guy was creative director at Nike, Lego, Starbucks. How much more creative can you be? But then again, that’s what IRDC always is. The best three days of the year to get your juices flowing.