Pressworks Blog

Pressworks Partners with Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce: Retail Summit 2017

August 22, 2017 by

 

Pressworks Inc. was proud to partner with the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce and Franklin County for Retail Summit 2017. Held in the new addition of The Columbus Convention Center on August 9th and 10th, Pressworks worked closely with the Event Producer and Graphic Designer to produce all of the grand format, window and wall graphics for the event.

Attended by over 700 retail professionals and retail industry service suppliers the event proved to be extremely successful.  Throughout the two-day conference, a multitude of relevant topics were addressed. Most notably: how can traditional retail compete with online competitors such as Amazon. Discussions involved the consumer experience and encompassed a variety of solutions from interactive merchandising to expanded services that complement the online consumer.

During the final presentation on Thursday DSW CEO, Roger Rowlins announced the evolution of their retail stores. DSW will soon offer everything from easy in-store returns and exchanges for online purchase, to shoe repair and rental, all to enhance the consumer experience and drive traffic and sales to their brick and mortar retail locations. Additionally, DSW is currently remodeling their Polaris store to test these initiatives and their new visual merchandising concepts designed to enhance the consumer experience.

“The Columbus Region is a hub – not only for logistics and excellence in the retail sector but disruption and innovative thinking more generally,” said Don DePerro, President, and CEO of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce.

Columbus is a major market in the retail industry. A city filled with talent that supports the industry. From creative services such Zengenius, Bluewater and CWT Interactive, to business support services and retail logistics companies, Columbus has an abundance of retail talent.

Alberto Scirocco, a Columbus filmmaker, and owner of Leftchannel with credits that include multiple international and national brands spoke about what the Columbus creative community needs to do secure the position of a major creative market.  Scirocco’s message was clear; to change Columbus’s current image and be perceived as the major market that we are, we have to stop treating each other as threats and begin working together as a collaborative creative community.

Another highlight at Retail Summit 2017 was the release of the annual Retail Report, published jointly by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners and the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, which provides unique insights into the state of the retail marketplace in Central Ohio.

As a full-service commercial printer, Pressworks works closely with retailers both locally and nationally providing services such as offset and digital printing, finishing and bindery services, grand format printing, direct mail, warehousing, distribution and custom web to print store fronts.