Remaking our Third Places – Rethinking Retail
This is a time of unprecedented disruption in main street businesses. Restaurants and street-front retail, the social gathering third places that make urban living vibrant, are struggling. Foot traffic has plunged. Consumer behavior increasingly relies on e-commerce, delivery, and take-out.
Stores have adapted with innovative technology, changes to layouts, updated business models, and by embracing new uses.
This full-day virtual symposium asks experts and local leaders to look at Washington’s retail landscape and answer the questions
- How do we preserve and rebuild a viable retail industry in the metropolitan Washington DC area?
- What roles will design and technology play?
- How do we rebuild the place and purpose of the retail landscape of our communities?
Join us to explore trends and projections for the future of third places.
Speakers include:
- Ricardo Belmar – Retail Technologist
- Steve Carboni – Senior Vice President, Rappaport Co.
- Allison Cooke, IIDA, LEED AP – Principal, CORE
- Justin Cox – CEO, Atlas Brewery
- John Falcicchio – DC Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development
- Sadie Morgan, OBE – dRMM Co-Founding Director
- David Shove-Brown, AIA – Partner, Studio 3877
- Dan Simon – Founder and Co-Owner, Farmers Restaurant Group
- Gautham Vadakkepatt – George Mason Center for Retail Transformation
- Kristi C. Whitfield – Director, DC Department of Small and Local Business Development
- Michael Wiencek, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C – President of Wiencek+Associates
Co-hosted by the Center for Retail Transformation and the Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship of the George Mason School of Business
February, 12
2:30am - 9:30am