The event kicks off on Monday February 26 with two study tours of Glasgow's booming retail scene, one taking in the St Enoch centre, Princes Square and Buchanan Galleries in the city centre and the other heading down the Clyde to Braehead and the neighbouring Xscape.

On Tuesday February 27 delegates assemble back in Edinburgh for the conference proper. This year's theme is 'Driving Your Business' and according to BCSC chief executive Michael Green it will focus on the challening job requirements facing centre and asset managers. "Helping you steer a course through the complexities of day-to-day centre management to the benefit of your business and your budget," is how he sums the programme up.

Conference chairs David Mills, manager of the Quedam centre in Yeovil, and Karen Saunders, retail business manager at Land Securities, have come up with a varied programme with a strong marketing emphasis.

Reflecting this, the keynote speech will be by Jeff Dodds, head of marketing at Honda UK, one of the most powerful brands in the world. He believes the intrinsic value of a brand depends solely on the customer's experience of it and he will explain why brand means more than just a logo and how service delivery on the ground is the only way to deliver the aspirations that a brand instils in the customer.

Following that, an expert panel made up of Martin Plocica, senior vice president at Simon Property Group, Jane Lawrence, head of retail asset management at Donaldsons, and Hamish Millar, centre manager at Buchanan Galleries, will discuss the range of initiatives available to managers when the investor asks them to 'sweat the asset'. Cost-saving initiatives will be on the agenda as will alternative revenue streams and the provision of services to retailers.

The afternoon will be given over to a number of sessions covering topics as diverse as wireless networks and environmental management. And once the work is over the fun begins, with the conference dinner taking place at the spectacular Our Dynamic Earth science centre.

The second day proper begins with human resources management consultant Emmanuel Aharoni speaking on the differences between men and women.

Then Ralph Ardill, chief executive of the Brand Experience Consultancy, will unveil some of the conclusions of the research he carried out on behalf of the BCSC into the 'Future of Brands'.

Finally, motor racing expert Richard West will describe how his experience with the McLaren and Williams Formula One teams can be applied to team-building in any industry, helping them become more performance-focused, more flexible, innovative and, above all, more competitive.

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