More than 270 delegates from 18 countries attend 'most successful' shopping centre industry summit

The most successful Middle East Council of Shopping Centres Annual Conference and Exhibition (MECSC), which celebrated its 10th anniversary, attracted delegates and visitors from the GCC, wider Middle East, North Africa, South Africa, Europe, UK. USA, Australia, the Indian Sub-continent and the Far East.

'The 2004 event has exceeded all our expectations with the number of conference delegates being the largest in the event's history,' said Mike Davidson, the newly elected President of MECSC.

'The exhibition has also grown in size and become an important networking forum for industry professionals.'

One of the founding members of the MECSC, Shavak Srivastava, Director of Sq. Ft Consulting said the founders had not expected an industry growth of this magnitude.

'This can be judged by the title of one of the topics in the 1994 convention which read 'Is the region being over-retailed'. Today MECSC has grown into a premier industry body for training and education and we expect it to grow more over the next five years.'

Phil McArthur, Marketing and Leasing Director of Dubai Festival City, and a past MECSC President said; 'We had an extremely positive response at the exhibition which justified our decision to be one of the platinum sponsors of the event.'

He added that he expected the MECSC's membership to top 500 in the next 18 months.

Meanwhile exhibitors praised the show, saying the quality of visitors was excellent.

Prakash Vivekanand, Director, Amusement Services International -Total Leisure Services, specialists in providing turnkey solutions for set up and operations of family entertainment centres and themed display areas for mall developers and retailers, said the exhibition has come into its own over the last three years.

'We had a series of serious and fruitful meetings with many visitors, especially from India and are on the verge of signing a deal with a mall operator from Iran,' said Vivekanand.

'This is our third time at the show and we will definitely be back for the next edition which we anticipate will be even bigger.'

Saudi Arabia's United Properties, a second time exhibitor at the show said the event was an excellent forum to network and gain a better insight into the Middle East's shopping centre industry.

Sonia LLC, market leaders in providing ethnic fast food cuisine in a shopping centre food court environment, reported tremendous interest from India, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar.

'Our aim was to showcase our new casual dining concepts to mall developers and operators and we have had a very positive response from top mall management around the region,' said Rajesh Chaubal, General Manager -Operations from the company.

Meanwhile leading retail experts will provide insights into the management and financing of shopping malls at two post conference and exhibition industry-led workshops tomorrow.

Duncan Waddell, Managing Director, FM Intelligence Pty. Ltd, one of Australia's leading authorities in facilities management will conduct an intensive half-day workshop on 'Best Practice in Property Management'.

Walter Kleinschmit, General Manager - Operations of Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Centre will conduct the second workshop titled 'The ABC of Leasing'.

Every delegate attending the leasing workshop will receive a complimentary copy of the International Council of Shopping Centres' (ICSC) 'Shopping Centre Study Lease'. This revised guide to writing a shopping centre lease features a commentary addressing various important leasing issues.