26 September 2020, Dhaka. To develop skills and knowledge within retail professionals, Bangladesh Brand Forum has organized Bangladesh Retail Congress 2020. Unlike previous years, this year the 5th edition of the congress took place virtually due to the current coronavirus outbreak from September 25-26. This year, Bangladesh Retail Congress was Presented by Shwapno and Powered by Apex Footwear Limited and In Association With The Daily Star. The theme of the initiative for this year is “Embracing the New Retail Experience”.

The event started will the welcome speech by Shariful Islam, Founder & Managing Director, Bangladesh Brand Forum. Eminent corporate personalities from and beyond the boundary will be brought together virtually to discuss insightful issues around the current state of retail. There were Four keynote sessions, Five panel discussions, Two insight sessions & Three case study Presentations. 

Md. Atiqul Islam, Honorable Mayor of DNCC as Chief Guest and Md. Sirazul Islam, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Investment & Development Authority, BIDA as Special Guest, Ms. Jinat Ara, Joint Secretary (Export Section-1), Ministry of Commerce; graced the occasion with their presence. Renowned professionals who presented the keynote sessions are – Daniel Hodges, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, World Retail Forum on “Retail & Sustainability”; Professor Shams Rahman, Professor of Supply Chain Management. RMIT University, Melbourne on “Retail supply chain: challenges and opportunities during and after COVID-19 pandemic”; Mahboob Hossain, Commercial Lead, RMS BD & Product Leader (Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh), The Nielsen Company on “The Retail Landscape and the Disruption due to COVID”; Arijit Chakraborti, Partner, PWC on “Rethinking Loyalty in The Age of Digital”; Damodar Mall, Chief Executive Officer, Reliance Fresh & Reliance Smart Subsidiaries, Reliance Industries on “Learning to Gain from the Pandemic in Supermarkets”.

The discussants are of the panel discussions were – Sabbir Hasan Nasir, Executive Director, ACI Logistics Ltd, Shwapno; Rahel Ahmed, MD & CEO, Prime Bank Limited;  Prof. Mohammad Abdul Momen, Director, Pride group; Rajan Pillai, CEO, Apex Footwear Limited; Murtaza Zaman, CEO, Unimart Limited; Yeamin Sharif Chowdhury, Director Oerations, Transcom Electronics Ltd.; Syed Mohammad Kamal, Country Manager, Mastercard; Shourav Islam, Founder, Unifox Digital, Sayeda Umme Salma (Jhumur), Media Director, Top of Mind & Chief Strategy Officer, Melonades; Sumbal Momen, Director, Pride Group; Talat Rahim, Head of Marketing, Dabur Bangladesh; Parfulla Mishra, Head of Marketing & Communication, Le-Reve; Rezwan Habib, Head of Marketing, DBL Group; Sheikh Aminur Rahman, Chief Sales Officer, Nagad; Sharmin Rahman, Head of Flagship, Grameenphone Limited; Farhan Rashid, Country Head, HMD Global, Nokia; Mohammad Mesbah Uddin, Chief Marketing Officer, Fair Group BD; Zeeshaan Kingshuk Haque, Co-founder & CEO, Sindabad.com; Mohammad Rashed, Certified Digital Finance, Practitioner (CDFP) & Convenor, Digital Finance, Forum Bangladesh; Mizanur Rashid, Chief Commercial Officer, bKash Limited; & Afeef Zaman, CEO & Co-Founder, ShopUp.

Moreover, the case study presentation sessions shed lights upon some emerging issues like home delivery service, Consumer & Consumer Behavior Pattern Analysis and the esteemed presenters are- Sami Ashraf, Channel & Category Development Director, Unilever Bangladesh Limited; Munaf Mojib Chowdhury, Director, Client Leadership, ADA – Analytics – Data – Advertising & Animesh Saha, CEO, PRAN-RFL Group. Finally, the insight sessions and speeches will be carried out by Md. Ashraful Alam, Country Lead, UNCDF & Morin Talukder, CEO, Pikaboo.com.

An initiative of Bangladesh Brand Forum, Bangladesh Retail Congress was presented by Shwapno and powered by Apex; in association with – The Daily Star, Supported by- Unimart & Fiona. World Retail Forum as strategic partner, MSB as knowledge partner, Aamra as technology partner, Think Content as content partner, Ekattor TV as media partner, Backpage PR as PR partner, Aatosh as Visual Partner & Exsentra as Web Solution Partner are also affiliated with this initiative by Bangladesh Brand Forum.