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Ban Ki-moon leads stellar TFWA speaker list
Former United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon will address TFWA World Exhibition & Conference 2017 delegates in Cannes, alongside former Ireland president Mary Robinson and Wired UK editor-at-large David Rowan.
Ban Ki-moon is to address TFWA delegates. Image: World Economic Forum
The annual flagship travel retail and duty free event from the Tax Free World Association (TFWA) sees thousands of delegates gather in Cannes, France, each October, for a week of business and networking.
The 2017 edition marks the 70th anniversary of the travel retail industry, which was founded at Shannon Airport in Ireland.
TFWA president Erik Juul-Mortensen will open the conference with his annual state of the industry address, and will be followed by Ban Ki-moon, who served as eighth UN general-secretary from 2007-16. He will discuss the need for leadership in a new global landscape and examine obstacles to lasting peace and prosperity.
Mary Robinson, who hails from the ‘birthplace’ of travel retail, will then take to the stage. The country’s first female president and a former UN high commissioner for human rights will speak from her perspective as an advocate for peace at home and abroad.
Coinciding with the launch of the TFWA Digital Village, David Rowan, an expert on the influence of tech on business and everyday life, will then look at the duty free and travel retail industry from the view point of a technology start-up.
The conference will again be moderated by journalist Stephen Sackur, who presents BBC World current affairs programme Hard Talk.
“This year’s TFWA World Exhibition & Conference speakers are especially well placed to explain the forces that will shape our industry and landscape in the future,” said TFWA president, Erik Juul-Mortensen.
“In the year of our 70th anniversary, it is more important than ever that we celebrate our history, but also equip ourselves for the challenges of the years and decades to come.”
The TFWA World Exhibition 2017 takes place at the Palais des Festivals, Cannes, from 1-6 October.