Retail Global pens open letter to e-commerce industry: “We will be back”

Dean Blake

7th Apr 2021

After having its five-day conference impacted, and subsequently cancelled, by last week’s circuit-breaker lockdown in Brisbane, Retail Global has penned an apologetic open letter to the e-commerce community.

Retail Global’s Retail Fest was planned to run for five days on the Gold Coast last week, but the celebrations were cut short when a number of high-profile speakers and guests were unable to attend on account of being locked in Brisbane. 

Global sales director for Retail Global Events Ashley Hudson said while the conference is geared towards e-commerce, Retail Global itself is an events company, and that trading in that space over the last 18 months has been “a bit shit”.

“Retail Global Gold Coast 2021, our first Australian event in 22 months, saw the unofficial overarching theme of ‘disruption and resilience’ appear, and boy could that not be more appropriate,” Hudson wrote. 

“The [Sunday] evening was buzzing with anticipation, partnerships were cemented, networking was rife and I cannot emphasise enough the excitement, ‘we were back baby’.”

Halfway through the discussions on Tuesday, however, the event was cut short. Speakers had to pull out, and the event couldn’t go forward – something Hudson wants to rectify by running smaller one-day Retail Fest Roadshows across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for RGGC ticket holders and sponsors throughout 2021. 

“We will be back,” Hudson wrote. 

“Until next time, we have no regrets for taking the punt bringing everyone together, from feedback the connections, conversations and friendships made from the event were at an all time high [and] as someone passionate about physical events, the e-commerce industry and people this is all I can ask for.”

You can read the full letter here.