The RetailROI charitable organization knows how to energize people leading up to the annual NRF convention. In its third year, SuperSaturday again fulfilled its promise of motivating both retailers and solution providers to get more involved in helping children in need around the world.
The day-long event, led by Greg Buzek, Founder and President of the IHL Group, was held on January 14, 2012 at the Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) offices in New York City. Feature presentations covered charitable efforts as well as retail trends. Notable speakers included:
- Dave Finnegan, Build-a-Bear Workshop
- David Levitt, Children’s Place
- Ed Martin, The Hershey Company
- Deborah Weinswig, Citi Investment Research
- Richard Hastings, Global Hunter Securities
- Vicki Cantrell, National Retail Federation
A growing list of retail solution providers are assisting in RetailROI’s charitable efforts. Those companies include: HP, Intel, Sprint, Oracle, Epson, SAP, Tyco, Cisco, Agilysys, IBM, Kronos, Mercury Payment Systems, NCR, Epicor and others. A number of these companies offered monetary donations to the RetailROI charitable efforts in return for booth meetings during the NRF convention.
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Noteably, Oracle Retail purchased 2,000 bears from Build-a-Bear and sold them for $20 donations on the show floor at the Javits. More than 800 bears were purchased during show hours, raising more than $16,000 in charitable donations. The remaining bears were donated to children’s organizations around the country.
Apart from the efforts during the NRF event, companies such as tekservePOS are helping by holding charitable events. At a November 2011 event, along with the Hoops of Hope charity, tekservePOS donated $20,000 – enough to build two wells in Africa. In total 85 retailers, OEM reps and tekservePOS employees participated in the event. During the event, tekservePOS raised money by hosting a free-throw contest and also collected $4,000 in additional funds through kiosks, web site donations and other activities.
