Bonus Panel on Data Security Added to 2017 Retail Summit

TYLER, Texas — A bonus panel discussion entitled, "Avoid Being Tomorrow’s Headline: Securing Data in Your Organization," has been added to the agenda for this year’s Retail Summit, hosted by The University of Texas at Tyler’s Center for Retail Enterprises (CRE) on Tuesday, Feb. 21.

The major theme for the 2017 summit will be cybersecurity, according to Dr. Robert Paul Jones, director of the CRE. The center provides continuing education and professional development to the retail community, with a strong emphasis on small-business retailers. The annual Retail Summit is a community event featuring speakers with vast knowledge on retail and service issues.

As previously reported, R. David Mahon, chief security officer of CenturyLink Inc., will keynote the event with a talk on "Emerging Trends & New Technologies in Cybersecurity for Retail & Services." He will provide attendees with the who’s and why’s of breaches, what hackers are looking for, how they get in, and what they do with breached data.

Mahon will also participate in the newly added bonus panel discussion with Dr. A.J. Burns and Dr. Paula Anthony-McMann on securing data in your organization.

In addition, the Summit will introduce attendees to the university’s new Cybersecurity Center, which focuses on digital forensics, IT risk assessment, ethical hacking, and research methods.

UT Tyler’s new Retail Research Convenience Store Lab, set to open in 2018, will also be discussed at the 2017 Retail Summit. The lab/store will be a unique retail and learning and research operation managed and run by students. Breakthrough technologies, including smart shelving, eye tracking, aroma, lighting and more, will help students, researchers and the industry learn more about what motivates shoppers — particularly millennials — to buy.

Click here for more information on the 2017 Retail Summit.