What’s That Buzzing Sound?
By Doug Stephens
Blogging live from the National Retail Federation conference in New York
This morning I attended one of the opening super sessions of the day, entitled Making the Retail Business Dynamic. As it turned out, I was seated in the press balcony and had a clear view of both the stage and the audience, who were still filing in and taking their seats as things got underway.
About mid-way through the talk, I found myself becoming increasingly distracted by a buzzing sound coming from the audience. It sounded like what you hear when your car radio is between stations. At times even the presenter appeared a little distracted by it. What was it? Where was it coming from, I wondered?
Then it struck me. It was the muffled sound of human voices coming through the headsets of audience members who were listening to simultaneous translation of the presentation – common at international conferences. And having been to the NRF conference before, I’m no stranger to overhearing the odd translation service but this was different, this was a practically a din!
That’s when I really took a close look at the audience. To my utter amazement, at least fifty to sixty percent of the people in the room were using translation services, many of whom appeared to be South American, Asian and Indian among other nationalities. Ten percent I’d understand, maybe even twenty percent but the majority of the audience? That was unheard of.
And despite the early start to the day, they were thoroughly engaged – glued to the presentation. Many took photos of the presenter’s slides. Others shot video and almost all took copious notes. They were literally ingesting every idea and concept and hanging on every word.
As the session carried on all I could think about was how truly symbolic this audience was of the historic global rebalancing that’s taking place. These people travelled thousands of miles for one purpose; to study the art and science of retail, an occupation that has for centuries been the magnum opus of western and European brands. They came to gather any and all insights that could help them better serve their vibrant, burgeoning economies. To build skills that would help them capitalize on their rapidly growing middle-classes.
I found myself wondering how long it will be before the cutting edge innovations in retail are no longer found on the flagship avenues of North America or Europe but instead in El Salvador, Singapore and Beijing. How many years before any real ground breaking research on consumer behavior is coming, not from the U.S. or U.K., but rather from Brazil and Algeria? How long before these students become the masters?
Not very long I suspect.
And that buzzing sound? Maybe it’s just the sound the retail universe makes when it’s expanding right before our eyes.