There were a few new brooms at this year’s Oxford Summer School, but the event’s traditions remained undimmed

The BSSA’s Oxford Summer School is one of the great traditions of the retail calendar and I always enjoy visiting the event, which is held every August in the stunning surroundings of Keble College. Last week I popped down on Thursday for a visit and to meet up with the new team running the show this year.

Stan Kaufman, the ex-Allders veteran who had headed the Summer School committee for years, and John Dean, the ex-military man who had run the BSSA with similar precision, had both retired since last year, but while their respective successors Dominic Prendergast and Alan Hawkins introduced some subtle changes this year - in particular updating the marketing curriculum for the multichannel age - the traditions and formality which are at the heart of the school remained very much intact.

The Summer School is really about the retailers who support it, whether by giving up their time to serve as Group Directors for the week, or to mark the delegates’ work, or to attend and participate as delegates. It’s hard work, and apparently Shop Direct boss Mark Newton-Jones, who spoke this year, remarked on how much more serious the students were these days than when he attended back in the 80s, when it sounds like it was a bit of a party.

I’ve written a fuller piece about the school which will be in Friday’s magazine, but my general point is that in an industry which is so fast moving that people don’t get time to think, for retail’s rising stars to have a week when all they do is focus on developing their skills as retailers and understanding of retailing as a business has to be a good thing. The Summer School is a great tradition and long may it continue.