Here’s an absolute last second reminder of a certain important deadline: the last call for Purple Apple Mentors is Friday, February 3rd. If you’re reading this on release, that’s tomorrow. Yikes.

If you’re planning to enter the BCSC Purple Apple Marketing Awards this year, you can’t go wrong with signing up. The mentors have all completed a two year term as a Purple Apple judge, so they have the inside scoop on what makes a submission great.

Of course, to take advantage, you need to have your submission ready to go. If you’ve got that ready, just email a word document version of it to Purple Apple Mentors with the subject “Purple Apple Submission Mentor” and they’ll get in touch.

If you’re not quite to that point yet, there are plenty of resources that can give you a leg up. You can check out the video presentations on the Purple Apple site once you’ve registered, read the top tips blog, and follow those involved on Twitter. Your entry is sure to impress if you take advantage of all that assistance.

A brief note for our Scottish readers this week: if you don’t want to miss your chance to book a seat at the BCSC Scotland Annual Dinner, you really ought to get on it – over half the tickets sold in the first week they were on sale.

It’s sure to be a lovely night, a meal attended by senior-level decision makers and a host of service providers from throughout the industry. As the BCSC says, “the evening offers the best in Scottish hospitality and gives you the chance to entertain clients or simply meet old friends and colleagues.”

So mark your calendars for March 21, and get ready to visit The Mansfield Traquair in Edinburgh. The gathering is open to members and non-members alike. Tickets are £100 + VAT for individuals, or £1000 + VAT for a full table of 10. After dinner, Alan Rough will speak.

Sound good? Reserve your place right here.

Ready to learn? BCSC has your back with its brand new Retail Property Master Class Programme, designed in partnership with Sir John Cass Business School.

This is a management-focused program, not a marketing one. But we know there are a few of you out there that are spending a lot of time thinking about these topics. It’s 8 full days of classes that will help you develop your knowledge and skills in the industry.

BCSC aims to set a new industry standard of excellence delivered through these courses. They’re split into three groupings, and participants can choose courses from any of them:

• Diagnosing and Creating Investment Potential: Appraising the investment potential of a shopping centre and understanding how a commercially viable and integrated shopping centre can be developed.
• Understanding and Managing the Shopping Centre Experience: Practical insights into challenges of centre management from retailer and customer perspectives.
• Driving Shopping Centre Performance: Creating sustainable performance and using a suite of performance metrics to provide deep insights into how ongoing centre performance can be optimised.

The classes are open to members and non-members alike. Interested? There’s a lot more information to be found right here.

Last week we gave you the heads up about the upcoming University of Shopping Centers, organized by the International Council of Shopping Centers. But if you’re across the pond, you might be more interested in the British Council of Shopping Centres’ Shopping Centre Management Diploma at the College of Estate Management. Courses start very soon, so if you’re interested, take a look.

The benefits of the course are substantial. Participants will develop business skills and gain a wider understanding of shopping center management, building on personal and practical experience.

The Diploma has been updated this year, now with modules on retailing, marketing, lease management, refurbishment and more. There are also opportunities available for folks who already have the credentials and just want to update with new modules.

It’s the start of a new year and the beginning of convention and awards season, so get your new calendars out and add a few dates.

Most urgently, this Friday is the deadline if you want to attend the NRF 101st Annual Convention & Expo and pay a reduced rate. After that you’ll be paying full door prices. These discounts apply to members and non-members alike, so don’t hold off.

Next up is February 17, the closing date for all entries for the BCSC 2012 Purple Apple Marketing Awards. Entries are open and presentations and mentoring opportunities are coming right up, so better get started (and if you feel like you’re experiencing deja vu, it’s because we mentioned this in our last newsletter – but so many of you were swamped with Christmas that we wanted to give you a reminder.)

Rounding out the rest of winter, the ICSC is offering its University of Shopping Centers once again on the campus of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania March 5 to 7. If you’re ready to improve your credentials and pick up some new skills, this is the place to be.

Got your 2012 calendars at the ready yet? If so, you might want to mark this down: the British Council of Shopping Centres is now taking entries for the Purple Apple Marketing Awards 2012.

There are a few deadlines to keep track of, now that entries are open. The organization will launch video presentations for prospective nominees in January. If you want to register for mentoring, you’ll have to do so by February 3rd. The absolute final deadline for all entries is February 17.

The hopeful among us may also want to prepare for the Awards Dinner at The Brewery in London – that falls on May 10.

If you haven’t participated in this awards program before, you should know that the BCSC Purple Apple Marketing Awards recognize and reward effective marketing in the UK. Entries are judged on their creativity, their planning and strategy, and their results and cost effectiveness.

If you’re planning to enter and your campaign has been featured in Shopping Center Weekly, Tactics Magazine or Marketing Trendz, get in touch if you need our help tracking down the article. So many of you deserve recognition for your great work. If you think you have what it takes, you can learn more here.

The South African Council of Shopping Centres (SACSC) has a big event coming up: its Research Conference 2012. Future-minded individuals may want to take note, because this year’s conference is all about that future, surviving and thriving in it, that is.

Intrigued? Then mark down March 14 on your 2012 calendar and prepare to visit the Hilton Sandton in Johannesburg. There, you’ll find a packed day of forward thinking speakers, including Michelle Buxton, a regular contributer to our print publications. Discussion will address the consumer of the future and the affluent customer of today, new technology for market research, dealing with multi-channel retailing, and more.

There are also great networking opportunities planned, including an evening cocktail party (and it looks like registration includes a +1 for that part of the day).

If you’re interested, visit this site for more information and to register.

It seems like just yesterday we were telling you to register ICSC MENA, and now it’s come and gone. But in its wake it left all sorts of great news for a bunch of fantastic shopping centers.

The winners of the 2011 ICSC Middle East & North Africa Shopping Centre Awards have been announced. Among the winners are Mall of the Emirates, Deira City Centre, Al Wahda Mall, Marina Mall, 360 Mall and Designopolis.

Of particular interest to you, faithful reader, are most likely the winners of the marketing-related categories. The Cause Marketing silver and gold winners include these campaigns, as pitched by the centers:

Go Red for Women in Dubai at Deira City Centre

“Go Red for Women” is an international campaign to raise awareness about the risk of cardiovascular disease in women. The headline “This Not a Red Dress, It’s a Red Alert” was adopted by Deira City Centre and was used in all advertising and in-mall communications to connect and highlight the important message.

Transforming Lives with a Smile at Al Wahda Mall

Operation Smile UAE, initiated in Al Wahda Mall, transcended the usual definition of partnership, and defines a new concept of corporate social endeavours. The mall offered free retail space to Operation Smile for almost a month and launched a campaign to spread awareness and raise funds to benefit this charitable cause to provide children with cleft palates reconstructive surgery. The first of its kind, this charitable effort resulted in funds for over 50 surgeries.

The Digital Media Gold award went to Mall of the Emirates for its Style MOEments campaign:

“To foster a more intimate relationship with the youthful, techy and trendy, the mall decided to use Facebook as their interactive platform. The mall developed an application that enticed daily log-ins and repeat visits by offering beauty tips, fashion freebies and other offers, as well as competitions to win prizes. Since its launch, the mall’s Facebook page grew to have almost 10,000 fans and daily interaction created serious buzz as the campaign went viral with almost 100,000 impressions.”

And to all the winners, congratulations!

The Fusion Conference is no more. ICSC has discontinued it, recognizing the shift in the shopping center industry away from focus on development and redevelopment.

But don’t despair, you aren’t being left in the lurch and the U.S. MAXI Awards will still happen. Instead, they’ll be found at the NOI+ Conference, a brand new initiative from the organization. It focuses on increasing net operating income at existing properties with revenue generation techniques, a topic we can all get behind.

We’re short on details still, and we’ll get you more when we can. So far, we know that the NOI+ Conference will bring discussion on new methods of alternative revenue generation, proven ideas for operational efficiencies, the latest trends in social networking to connect with customers, and a lot more. It’s going to take place September 5-6, 2012, at the Peabody in Orlando, Florida. Mark your calendars.

There are big changes afoot in the shopping center industry conference circuit.

One of those changes is to the British Council of Shopping Centres ACE Awards. Normally those would be presented in February and we’d be reminding you to put your application together right about now, but because the BCSC SCM Conference and the BCSC Annual Conference have been merged going forward, those dates have been pushed back.

Now the ACE Awards, which recognize outstanding customer service on a mall-wide basis, will be presented at BCSC’s Conference and Exhibition, held 10-12 September 2012, at ACC, Liverpool.

That means you’ll be able to hold off entering until March 2012, so no need to worry about it this holiday season. That should be a relief during these busy times.