Awards

General Motors’ director of information technology, Kim Clower, and Walmart vp of strategy for innovation, governanance and communications are keynote speakers for the 9th annual Women in IT Conference.

The event, presented by the Information Technology Research Institute at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, will focus on celebrating innovation and developing opportunities for women in technology. It will be held at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, Ar.

WASHINGTON — The Lenovo ThinkPad T430s topped TopTen USA's list for energy-efficiency.

The nonprofit group, appaluded he fact that the laptop uses only 7.4 kilowatt hours of electricity in a year of typical use. The average comparable model uses 28 kWh per year—almost 4 times the energy.  On average, TopTen-listed laptops use about half (48%) the energy of comparable models.

Check out the video of the latest jewel in  Simons' department store portfolio. The 118,00-sq.-ft. store, in West Edmonton Mall,  Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) took top honors in Chain's Store Age's Retail Store of the Year Design competition.

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NEW YORK -- Retailing Today's sister publication, Chain Store Age has awarded Simons, Canada’s eclectic and fashion-forward department store retailer, top honors in its 31st annual Retail Store of the Year design competition. The company’s 118,000-sq.-ft. store in West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, Canada, was named Store of the Year. Designed by figure3, Toronto, Simons also was the winning entry in the department store category.

CHICAGO — Muhtar Kent, CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSN Inc., and actress and activist Geena Davis will headline an all-star bill at the Network of Executive Women Executive Leaders Forum, July 23 to 25 in Los Angeles. More than 250 senior-level executives from the retail and consumer products industry are expected to attend the invitation-only event.

SEATTLE — Amazon.com has launched the Entertainment Collectibles Store (amazon.com/entertainmentcollectibles) which offers more than 350,000 unique and rare collectibles, including memorabilia from Academy Award and Grammy winning artists and honorees. 

Amazon customers can browse collectibles by item type, entertainment type, autographed, price and year to find everything from classic photographs and original manuscripts to signed artist contracts and autographed movie posters.

New York -- Simons, Canada’s eclectic and fashion-forward department store retailer, received top honors in Chain Store Age’s 31st annual Retail Store of the Year design competition. The company’s 118,000-sq.-ft. store in West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, Canada, was named Store of the Year. Designed by figure3, Toronto, Simons also was the winning entry in the department store category.

LOS ANGELES — Ikea has been named "best small space solution" by The Intelligence Group, a consumer insights firm, publisher of the Cassandra Report, which highlights youth trends and behavior.

Ikea was one of the winners of the group's first Cass Awards, which were awarded to companies and brands that best reached Generation Y through their marketing efforts last year.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Shopkick, a shopping app, on Wednesday announced that Nielsen ranked shopkick No. 34 out of approximately 1 million apps in December 2012. While still trailing giants like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter overall, Shopkick dominated the shopping category during the holiday season, with more frequent and prolonged usage than all physical retailers' own apps including Starbucks, Walmart, Walgreens, Kroger and Safeway, the app developer noted. 

Raleigh, N.C. -- Apple, Costco and The Container Store top the “2012 100 Best Retailers To Work For” list compiled by The Retail Life online retail community, which was developed by Headway Workforce Solutions. DSW and American Eagle outfitters round out the top five.

The list, derived from The Retail Life members, was based on a variety of criteria, such as: competitive salaries, employee reviews, company pride, organizational values and culture, socialization opportunities, and career advancement opportunities.