Summer show in Atlanta to open to the public for select concert events

CBA is making a shop window of its summer show this year. Atlanta-area church and community leaders are to be invited to attend select worship and concert events at the Inte rnational Christian Retail Show (ICRS) that will open to the public, said retail association Executive Director Curtis Riskey.

The move is part of a thrust at the event—which returns to Atlanta for the first time in four years, July 10-13—to promote the importance of Christian stores in their local communities. The theme: "Celebrate the Word—Impact the Culture."

"We are working diligently to use ICRS to tell churches, Christians and the general public about the role and ministry of Christian stores and the resources they carry," Riskey said. "Christian stores have a ministry role in their communities and we are helping tell that story."

By mid-February, when the event Web site—www.christianretailshow.com—went live, around 175 exhibitors were registered for the show, which will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center. When it last hosted ICRS in 2007, there were 386 exhibitors and almost 4,000 attendees.

The 2011 event will include new features to help the industry better understand where Christian retailing is going in the future, said Riskey. "All specialty retail stores, such as Christian stores, are trying to become not just stores, but local hubs for community. 

"Stores increasingly will need to define their niche in the marketplace and be a gathering center for like-minded people to offset the challenges of Internet-only competition and big-box discounters. Our new Town Center design will help demonstrate how that might happen in Christian stores."

In addition, Riskey said that CBA has been working on some other projects "that will make this ICRS one of the best ones in recent years."

Though Thomas Nelson will have international and remainder groups represented on the show floor again, the company "has no plans for a general booth presence on the trade show floor" for the third successive year, said Tom Knight, the company's senior vice president of Christian retail and ministry development group.

The world's largest Christian publisher will have a hospitality suite and "a small group of people attending" ICRS, he added. "We recognize that ICRS plays a central role as a meeting place for the industry, however, we have no plans to exhibit." 

The company "continues to support Christian retail," he told Christian Retailing, with Nelson recently hosting a contingent of store owners, buyers and managers at its spring sales conference.