LAS VEGAS-We might still have close to 10% unemployment in the United States, and retailers’ April sales figures were nothing to brag about, but the retail real estate industry is optimistic that things are going in the right direction.

"Shoppers are returning, and they are shopping," said Michael Kercheval, president and chief executive officer of the International Council of Shopping Centers, speaking at the annual RECon show here. "Retailers are recovering, and consumption is coming back."

About 35,000 people are at this year’s convention, noted Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, keynote speaker at the event. This is an improvement from last year, when attendees drastically dipped from the high point of 2007, which saw a record 50,000 people.

Before Palin and Kercheval, a series of workshops took place to assist retail real estate professionals with their day-to-day activities. Joseph Aquino, a broker at New York City-based Prudential Douglas Elliman, said that many foreign retail concepts are looking to make a push into the United States.

Store closings during the recession have worked to their advantage. "Retailers that were sitting on the fence decided to get into the market," he said. "You have people jumping into the market taking advantage of it."

Among the concepts he mentioned were Kusmi Tea and Kimaya, a furniture chain, both from India. Domestically, J. Crew and Brooks Brothers are also launching new concepts, he said.

Meanwhile, networking is as important as ever, said Debra Cole, a development director at New York-based architecture firm Perkins+Will. Her message: Don’t let bad economic times get you down.

"You just have to get out there and get going," she said.

And bring mints. "No stinky breath," Cole emphasized.