With over 8,000 retail and brand professionals attending, over 300 exhibitors and over 100 speakers including headliners: Steven Bartlett, Jake Humphrey, Peter Cowgill, Mary Portas and Kate Hardcastle on stage, it can only be the Retail Technology Show, being held once more this year at Olympia over 26th and 27th April.
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Rapidly establishing itself on the retail calendar, the Retail Technology Show has become a must-attend event, combining the exhibition with a great conference agenda. I’ve been taking a look at what’s on and this is my personal pick from a packed two day agenda.
Day One
Maybe I’m a little biased because I’m chairing it, but if you head over to the main headline theatre, I promise you won’t be disappointed. I’ll be kicking off the morning at 9.40am with a fireside chat with former JD Sports chairman & CEO, Peter Cowgill.
And later the same morning I’m equally excited to be sitting down with broadcaster and host of the high performance podcast, Jake Humphrey. But if that wasn’t enough, speakers from Retail Economics, the retailTRUST, The Very Group, the Co-op, the British Retail Consortium, Levi Straus and Bensons for Beds complete the amazing line-up.
But it’s not just about the headline theatre, there are five others focusing on customer obsession and marketing, innovation and the future, eCommerce growth and omnichannel, supply chain delivery and sustainability and a theatre dedicated to payments, checkout and fraud. In addition there is a TECH talks theatre where you can hear from established players and start-ups alike discussing some of the technology you really should be considering right now.
Day Two
Once again, the headline theatre has some star attractions, my pick being fireside chats that broadcaster and retail expert Kate Hardcastle will be having with Mary Portas and then later in the morning Steven Bartlett - personally, I won’t be missing either of those.
Elsewhere on the headline theatre, hear from the likes of Currys, Ikea, M&S, Boohoo, adidas, Walgreens Boots alliance, John Lewis, Morrisons, B&Q and Estee Lauder. Now that’s what I call a stellar line-up of amazing brands.
However, the Retail Technology Show isn’t just about the exhibition and the theatres, other than being a great networking opportunity, there’s the TECH talks theatre, the Discovery Zone where you can meet start-ups less than five years old and then of course there’s retail’s BIG Party at the end of day one, definitely not to be missed.
And a shout-out to my friends at RETHINK Retail who will be there along with many of their retail influencers.
Oh, and the best bit? It’s free to register using the link below, so what are you waiting for? I hope to see you there.
https://rfg.circdata.com/publish/RTS23/simplereg.aspx?source=RTSwebsite
Andrew's Retail Reflections is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.