The International Council of Shopping Centers, Inc. is planning a strategic reorganization of the department that organizes the association's deal making and trade shows. The change will enable ICSC to better serve its members' needs with a team of professionals dedicated to facilitating all exhibition aspects, including sales, setup, and on-site coordination.
"After careful evaluation of our capabilities and the needs of our members, including the insights we received at a town hall meeting held at RECon in Las Vegas, we identified a significant opportunity to provide increased service, innovation, and value for our members. As a result, we have assembled a talented team of professionals that will better serve our members through an integrated offering with a focus on customer service," said Michael Kercheval, president and CEO, ICSC.
In addition to the supervision of the Leasing Mall and Trade Exhibition at RECon, one of the world's largest retail real estate conferences, the Deal Making and Trade Show Services Team will have oversight of the exhibits at the New York Deal Making, Chicago Deal Making, RetailGreen Conference, Asia Expo, RECon Latin America, Fusion, Canadian Convention, Western Conference, and Retail Connections Europe.
Tim McGuinness, staff vice president, Global Trade Expositions, has assumed responsibility for ICSC's Deal Making and Trade Show Services Team. McGuinness joined ICSC in June of 2008 after spending four years as executive director at NYC & Company, the convention and tourism bureau for the City of New York. In that role he managed the tourism, convention sales, membership, and visitors information centers. He also worked for 17 years for Reed Exhibition Companies serving as Reed's vice president of operations. Reporting to McGuinness are Rita Malek, Global Trade Show sales manager; Douglas Lugo, Trade Expositions planner; Peter Bordes, coordinator of Leasing/Deal Making; Sally Stephenson, senior advertising executive; and Suzanne Tanguay, Global sales manager. Assisting the department are Liz McKinney, trade exposition coordinator and Vivien Zhang, project assistant.
Phyllis Peterson, who built ICSC's trade show and deal making programs from small local events into some of the world's largest and most productive commercial real estate business-to-business venues, is retiring from ICSC after 31 years with the organization. "A creative deal-maker herself, Phyllis is largely responsible for the development of the highly successful ICSC RECon Leasing Mall, one of the industry's most critical business resources. Over the last ten years, RECon has grown from a regional convention of shopping center owners to the premier global deal making venue for retail real estate, drawing over 50,000 attendees at its peek in 2007. Phyllis deserves much of the credit for this success and she leaves behind a proud legacy of contributions to ICSC," said Kercheval.

Effective immediately, companies seeking information on ICSC's exhibitions and trade shows should contact Rita Malek at 1-646-728-3539, Douglas Lugo at 1-646-728-3847 and Peter Bordes at 1646-728-3634.