Started in 1997 as an annual congress-show for the information- and security section EuroCIS in Duesseldorf/ Germany meanwhile is a hot spot between its tri-annual umbrella-fair EuroShop. As EuroShop was in February 2014 - in 2015 and 2016 EuroCIS will be again a stand-alone one (see:Press Release).

2015 will be record-breaking again : 8966 squaremeters net exhibition place - 3278 of them from abroad ; a total of 266 exhibitors - 108 from abroad ; expected visitors : over 8000 ! "Due to the World Economic situation and fierce national competition retail has to invest in 2015/2016 in its technology - also considering new omni-channel concepts !" Prof.Dr.Hallier said.
 

The VSE Prague/CZ is one of the founding members of the European Retail Academy. Its former rector Professor Jiri Jindra (see : Hall of Fame) created together with the Czech Retail Association, with the Ministery of Trade and other partners (today Blue events) the CZ Retail Summit ( see Conference 2015).

Today the CZ Retail Summit is the biggest retail event in Central Eastern Europe. Prof.Dr.B. Hallier has been honoured by VSE for his cooperation during the transition within Central Eastern Europe to a social market economy by a Dr.honoris causa (see : http://cms.berndhallier.de).
 

At the Singapore Awards Ceremony of Retail Asia in November the top three retailers within 14 key markets had been honoured . One of several criteria had been also environmental issues : see news of November. But also marketing stategies, operational success, human resources and IT-investments had been reviewed by the international Jury.

The Gold Awards were given to Westfarmers/Australia, China Resources Enterprise/China, AS Watson/Hong Kong, Future Value Retail/India, Indomarco Prismatama/Indonesia, Seven & I Holdings/Japan, GCH Retail (M)/Malaysia, Foodstuffs (NZ)/New Zealand, SM Retail/Philippines, NTUC FairPrice Co-operative/Singapore, Lotte Group/South Korea, President Chain Store Corp/Taiwan, CP-All/Thailand and SaigonCo.op/Vietnam.
 

Under the patronage of the regional Ministry for climate,environment,agriculture,nature- and consumer protection of North Rhein Westfalia a German platform of experts discussed solutions against food waste (see : www.vz-nrw.de/lebensmitteltagung ). Within the panel-discussion Prof.Dr.Hallier presented the results of the EU-project Forward ( see:draft pages 1-21from the book: Food Waste Management).

At the EXPO Milano 2015 the Bocconi University will organize an international student competition in collaboration with the Expo, the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forest Policies and the European Commission - under the patronage of UN for Expo, FAO and the World Food Programme. Bocconi University will invite 200 undergraduates from around the world for a week of study, teamwork and challenges of food waste (more : www.european-retail-academy.org/ERM)
 

Each year the European Retail Academy is appointing one outstanding Professor for the Hall of Fame of ERA. For 2015 Prof.Dr.L.Wegnez from Brussels is "the man of the year" (see : Hall of Fame).

In his laudatio ERA-President Prof.Dr.B.Hallier stated :"Leon Wegnez had a strong impact on me when I came to the international retail sector in 1985. I joined him with AIDA for example to Conferences in Finland, Romania, Tunesia, Syria, Mexico or other places; I appreciated his activities for Urbanicom International with its impulses for CityMarketing - and last but not least his multi-language-skills. And still today Leon Wegnez is a benchmark for work-loads to be mastered highly efficiently !"