World Alliance International Retail Conference Keynotes Top National Business Leaders

DENVER, CO--(Marketwire - Feb 27, 2013) -  National retail leaders and the major brands of Home Depot, Nintendo, Lego, and Ghirardelli are registered for the 2013 Retail Merchandising & Marketing Conference to be held on April 27-30 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Representatives from 13 countries as far away as Russia will attend the international conference, to be hosted by the newly-rebranded World Alliance for Retail Excellence & Standards, formerly NARMS International. Headlining the keynote speakers are nationally-renowned Robin Lewis of the Robin Report; Lily Lev-Glick of Shopper Sense; Gerry O'Brion to address the topic of "What Big Brands Know," and Matt Herlevic of Sam's Club. These cutting-edge dynamic speakers will augment the educational and informative breakout sessions, a trade show with the latest technology and services, and manufacturer and retailer forums and panel discussions.

In addition, World Alliance is partnering with the impressive, globally-involved Enactus to sponsor a golf tournament on one of the finest courses in Scottsdale, with all profits going to benefit the non-profit organization's mission of bringing together student, academic and business leaders to use the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world. Enactus is recognizable across the world, with its business partners counted among the Fortune 500 companies, culminating in much-needed community empowerment projects, which enable progress and nurture tomorrow's leaders in an ever-more complicated and challenging world.

The theme for the upcoming conference is "Learn. Change. Grow." A six-person informative panel will provide guidance and insights on topics ranging from creating an ecosystem that expands connections to customers to the development of customer-centric products to executing contact strategy and using creativity to craft powerful brand reputations will be part of the panel discussion.  Featured panelists include Sean Cook, CEO of ShopVisible; Eric Holtzclaw, CEO and Founder of Laddering Works; Jennifer Kwiatkowski, Director of Circulation and Analytics for Plow and Hearth; Dave McMullen, Partner/Strategic Planner for redpepper; Florian Vollmer, Senior VP of Design and Principal at InReality; and Lisa Calhoun, CEO of Write2Market.

World Alliance for Retail Excellence & Standards, formerly NARMS International, is a non-profit organization based in Denver that brings together all sectors of the retail industry: retailers, manufacturers, independent food and non-food brokers, wholesalers and distributors, retail service companies and support service members. Together, they are an alliance of at-retail companies entrusted with delivering exceptional sales, marketing and service support to B2C manufacturers, retailers and their customers, across all channels.