Flourish 2020, from March 16-18, to Go Virtual Amid Coronavirus Fears

CHICAGO, March 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Flourish, the only independent and dedicated gift-card conference where industry leaders tackle present-day issues and the future of retail gift card programs announces that Flourish 2020 is moving to a virtual format on March 16-17, with efforts underway to reschedule the Chicago event in August following the rapid escalation of the COVID19 outbreak and subsequent travel bans. Dubbed Flourish Virtually, key sessions and annual ecosystem meetings that kick off the retail fiscal year will now be facilitated by the organizers embracing digital-first technologies.

Embracing the demands of FY2021 for retailers and restaurants, Flourish 2020 will continue to deliver 25% of sessions on March 16 and 17, including:

• Pioneering consumer research that creates gift card buyer and recipient profiles in an industry where little data exists
• Findings unveiled from pioneering consumer profiling study conducted by Scio Motus, utilizing social listening and AI-powered by IBM Watson to create consumer profiles where no data exists.
• A real-time hacker to expose contemporary gift-card fraud methods
• Witness leading industry pen-tester, Will Caput, expose the latest retail and restaurant fraud hurting bottom-lines and reputations: survey codes.
• A panel of channel aggregators, incentive providers, and merchants, including a multi-brand restaurant group, to discuss and debate the impact of channel consolidation.

To ensure that critical meetings and partnership discussions amongst fellow ecosystem leaders take place as planned, Flourish will enable virtual "coffees" via scheduling facilitation and coffee gift cards for attendees as an added incentive.

Attendees not originally registered can sign-up today to take advantage of Flourish Virtually on March 16-17th, plus the rescheduled event later this summer. Similarly, original registrants will benefit from valuable content and meetings in March, followed by subsequent content and continuing conversations in a few months.

Industry leaders Holly Glowaty and Kristen Thiry founded the Flourish Conference in 2017 to create an independent and unbiased forum where gift card leaders from all parts of the ecosystem come together to tackle challenging business issues such as lack of aggregated industry data, the strength of 3rd party networks within the ecosystem, digital fraud, and innovative gift card applications to increase merchant CLV.

Flourish fills a glaring post-holiday void for retailers focused on assessing the value of the previous fiscal year's gift card, loyalty and incentive programs. In 2019, holiday sales for gift cards increased an estimated 7%; whereas total sales for retailers rose only a reported 3.4%. Major retail conferences, such as the NRF Big Show, dedicate less than two percent of content to gift cards.

About Flourish
Flourish is the only gift-card industry conference that is an independent and agenda-free forum where gift card leaders from all segments of the ecosystem come together to engage in and workshop challenging business issues each spring in Chicago, Illinois. The annual post-holiday forum brings industry leaders together to drive change and advance the gift card ecosystem by diving deep into branded currency programs - which combine gift cards, prepaid products, loyalty points, coupons, promotional codes, and merchandise credits into one integrated retail experience - as well as pitfalls, voids, and opportunities. Flourish is produced by K+H Connection, a leading boutique gift card consulting firm headquartered in Chicago, IL. For more information, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook or find us at www.flourishcon.com

Media Contact:
Flourish
Monica Rohleder
FIRST marketer group
+1 847 606 1973
[email protected] 

SOURCE Flourish Conference

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