Retail Risk-Toronto goes down a storm: delegates vote unanimously to reconvene next year

Loss prevention executives working for Canada’s biggest retailers met at the first Retail Risk – Toronto conference on 22^nd June. The venue was the spectacular Renaissance Downtown Toronto Hotel, overlooking the Blue Jays Toronto Stadium and a day trip away from the Niagara Falls.

Chairing the event was Rui Rodriguez, National Director Asset Protection, Holt Renfrew, well known to all present as a doyen of Toronto’s LP and risk management professionals.

Corin Dennison, Director Legal & Compliance (Global Investigations), adidas Group (a global sponsor of the Retail Risk conference series), gave the first main presentation of the day. Corin shared insights from his experience of protecting an iconic brand and overseeing a fast growing retail estate of 2,800 stores and corporate locations worldwide.

Next up was Patrick Brophy, eCommerce Specialist at Moneris, a partner with Kount Inc., (another global sponsor of the Retail Risk series). Patrick looked at likely future trends in fraud and payment transactions, underlining the need for merchants to be able to pivot as the threat landscape changes.

He was followed by Ron Kornblum, Director, Corporate Security at Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada’s leading food and pharmacy retailer. In a compelling presentation, Ron shared latest intelligence on organised retail crime and how it is affecting the Canadian market.

Nick Walker, Commercial Director, ai Corporation, (a global sponsor of the conference series) gave a user friendly guide to machine learning and how it can enhance and improve fraud detection.

Carl Boutet, Commercial Lead – Retail, at Genetec, a Canadian firm with a global footprint in the security industry, followed with an overview of how unified security can help retailers tap into new efficiencies.

Lee Jeyes, Director, Loss Prevention, Walmart Canada, gave a millennial’s view of digital disruption and the shape of risk to come. Looking beyond the immediate future Lee advised delegates to get ready for virtual reality. E-commerce, m-commerce and omni-channel are just the start, he warned.

As an example of how rapidly technology is changing he recalled that at school ten years ago he was taught how to make websites, knowledge that is already redundant as websites are now built by apps.

Lee was followed by Paul Bessant, founder of Retail Knowledge, who gave the new live and interactive Retail Risk Global Survey its first outing in Toronto. The third party software enabling respondents to remain anonymous was a welcome innovation here, and delegates were very receptive, commenting that no such benchmarking had been done for the Canadian market. A report based on the findings is now being compiled and will be circulated to all conference delegates.

Finally, former criminal mastermind and world eTheft authority, Tony Sales, spoke to delegates via skype. Tony held their attention in a vice-like grip as he warned them that “data is the new cash” and data theft potentially the greatest risk they face.

The audience voted unanimously to reconvene for another Retail Risk –Toronto next year. “There was lots of enthusiasm and a good day was had by all,” said Paul Bessant.