With development activity grinding to a halt, asset management is back at the top of the industry’s agenda. The forthcoming BCSC management conference will aim to help managers rise to this challenge as the downturn really begins to bite.

This year’s shopping centre managers’ conference takes place in Liverpool at the beginning of March. The programme has been put together by DTZ director Eileen Connolly and Mark Rumfitt, manager of Hempstead Valley in Kent, and the two are in the second year of their joint chairmanship.

“We aim to achieve continuity, so we can take the issues and move them on from year to year,” says Connolly. “We’ve come up with a wide-ranging programme, and one of our best speaker lineups.”

And she adds: “The landscape has changed so we’ve addressed the issues that matter. We want to give people a real reason to come. There will be actions that they can take back to their centres and put into practice.”

Eileen Connolly joined Donaldsons – which merged last year with DTZ - in 1982 and pioneered the role of the shopping centre marketing manager in the UK market. That means she is now working through her third downturn in the market, and she is already seeing a real demand for information and advice among centre managers who have never experienced such conditions.

“I think a lot of managers are coming under pressure on their service charges,” she says. “They are going to need to be able to demonstrate the skills and services that are relevant to today’s shopper. First and foremost it’s important to remember that you don’t have to drop your standards to be value-led.”

While commercialisation has become something of an industry buzz-word, and managers are under pressure to maximise revenue, Connolly is already detecting a backlash among retailers and, potentially, among consumers. “There’s a fine line between adding to the centre experience and robbing Peter to pay Paul,” she cautions. “More and more retailers are demanding exclusion zones to control RMUs outside their stores and, with leasing getting harder, they are going to be able to dictate terms,” she forecasts.

“People are better organised on poster contracts, and on events,” she concedes, “but other than that there’s not a huge amount of evidence that commercialisation is adding to the customer experience.”

And she floats the idea that short-term lettings might be preferable to using RMUs. “With an increase in empty fascias. There’s a risk that shoppers are going to turn increasingly to the web,” she says. “We therefore have to make the shopping centre the most attractive shopping experience we can. We need to make the best use we can of empty units but the question is: how do you get access?”

Another trend that Connolly detects in the current market is the resurgence of local shopping. “Local centres are doing better than people might think,” she says. “Take Hempstead Valley for instance. It trades in the shadow of Bluewater and Lakeside but it’s succeeded by being realistic about what it is and what it has to offer.”

But she warns that other centres of that generation – Hempstead opened in the 1970s – are facing what she calls a ‘mid-life crisis.’ “Places like the Ridings in Wakefield and the Quadrant in Swansea are all having to compete with millions of sq ft of new space.”

Equally, a lot of retail parks are feeling the pinch, with their dependence on the fortunes of the housing market to drive trade in the bulky goods sector. Now, more than ever, Connolly feels they need to do what they’ve always been reluctant to do and start marketing. “There’s nothing in the service charge,” she admits, “so landlords are going to have to make a commitment.”

She points to the Tottenham Hale retail park in North London as an example, where £50,000 of marketing spend produced a tangible improvement in trade. “You don’t have to spend a lot to make a big difference through well-placed and quality marketing,” she says.

This businesslike and practical approach is reflected in the management conference programme that she has helped draw up. The theme is ‘Stand up and be counted.’ “We wanted to reflect the fact that management’s back at the sharp end,” she says.

Among the conference sessions she highlights Mark Price, managing director of Waitrose, who blogs as ‘The Chubby Grocer.’ “Waitrose has bucked the trend by having the strength and commitment not blindly to follow the discount trend,” Connolly says. “Instead it’s looked at what its customers want and made sure it delivers it.”

And reflecting Connolly’s background two of the plenary sessions have a marketing theme. Leading the way is marketing guru Karl Kalcher who, among other projects, launched Legoland. “He’s always thought-provoking,”she comments. Tom Savigar of The Future Laboratory will aim to take demographics and customer segmentation to new levels. And ex-M&S manager Ros Gardner will be focusing on customer service.

The management conference has become the traditional venue for the BCSC’s ACE customer service awards, and this year the chairman of the jury is Shopping Centre contributor Jonathan Doughty.

The conference ends with a motivational speech by racing trainer Jenny Pitman, making a return to Liverpool, scene of her Grand National triumph. She will be speaking on the theme ‘Will to Win’. Connolly points out: “The conference is only a month before the National, so perhaps we’ll get some tips.”

A feature of the management conference has always been the streamed break-out sessions. This year for the first time the sessions are graded to flag up those which offer beginners’ guides, which may also be relevant for delegates seeking a refresher course on a subject, as opposed to those which drill down into more detail for experienced practitioners.

Two sessions in particular stand out for their topicality: lawyers Eversheds will be hosting a session on landlords’ rights when a tenant becomes insolvent, and the Anti Terrorist Branch of the police will be providing a security update, focusing on how centres can maintain and improve their vigilance without detracting from the shopper experience.

So far delegate numbers are ahead of 2008 levels, but Connolly is fully aware of the need to be flexible in the current climate, and a number of early-bird and multi-buy discounts are available. Equally she recognises the importance of relevant and accessible content. “Property and asset management has never been more important so now is the time to really make a difference,” she concludes.