For Immediate Release
ARTS contact: Kathy Grannis (202) 783-7971 or grannisk@nrf.com

www.nrf.com/artsusersmeeting

Association for Retail Technology Standards to Host Inaugural Users Meeting in Orlando

Washington, July 22, 2009 – The Association for Retail Technology Standards will kick off its first users meeting with one theme in mind: Complexity Made Simple. The meeting will serve as a face-to-face venue for retailers to come together and learn about the benefits and “how-to’s” of ARTS standards, technical research, and new initiatives. The three-day event, September 21-23 at the Marriot Hotel in Orlando, will be filled with educational sessions and networking opportunities.  

At the event, retailers will present actual case studies on ARTS standards addressing topics such as putting XML and SOA to work, mobile phones in retail, cloud computing, and business agility, as well as technical how-to sessions. The meeting will also welcome retail executives from around the world, including Geoff Pearce, Director of Applications, The Reject Shop (Australia) and Marc van der Heijden, Vice President, Global IT, CC Retail, adidas AG (Germany) and Leonardo Octavio Ramirez Gonzalez, Regional Chief Architect, Easy Homecenter (Cencosud) in South America.

General session topics include:

* Using the ARTS Data Model for flexible response to business demands
* Using the ARTS Standard RFP for point of sale to evaluate and unify enterprise POS for new solutions
* Cloud computing
* Data security with payment separate from POS 

Four featured tracks during the meeting include sections devoted to ARTS XML, Data Model, Business Intelligence (BI) and Emerging Retail Technologies. Each track will provide education, tip and techniques for attendees to successfully implement standards for increased responsiveness to demands from the business at lower cost.  

More information is available on http://events.nrf.com/ARTS09/ 
The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) is an international membership organization dedicated to reducing the costs of technology through standards. Since 1993, ARTS has been delivering application standards exclusively to the retail industry. ARTS has four standards: The Standard Relational Data Model, UnifiedPOS, IXRetail and the Standard Requests for Proposal. Membership is open to all members of the international technology community- retailers from all industry segments, application developers and hardware companies. www.nrf-arts.org.

The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, chain restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 24 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2007 sales of $4.5 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.

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NRF is pleased to grant complimentary registration to editorial staff members of the press. Click here to register online for the ARTS User’s Meeting, or contact Kathy Grannis at (202) 626-8189, grannisk@nrf.com.